Hogwart's
by ArmachiA
Summary: Set 15 years after Harry Graduates. Someone is after Rebeka and Hollie Skyelar. A hidden past reveals a hidden enemy who would do anything to get rid of them
1. The Journey to Howart's

A/N: I actually started writing this fanfiction about two years ago, but with the recent release of "Aftershocks" into the wilds that is the internet, I decided I might as well let this one go too. It needs majore revisions however, so the chapter process may be slow. However I can give you neat little facts about when I was writing this! *LOL* Here's one, 85% of the characters are named after people I know. I know what your thinking "Another Mary Sue! EWW" Well, just so you know, I HATE Mary Sues... they suck. 

Next, it's going to switch perspectives. Seems like that is going to be my M.O. since my other story does that too. Oh, and, the chapter are long. While my other story's chapters are about 6 pages on MS word, this one's average is about ten pages per chapter. But it was never meant to go online and it was supposed to be a fan book. If you want to read a book instead of just reading small fics, then I suggest you read this one ^_^

  


Disclaimer: I don't own nothing... not even my characters since a lot of them are based on real people. It's just for fun, but yall know that and I'm sure JK Rowling knows I'm not out selling this crap. *LOL* On with the show!

  


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Chapter One:

The Journey to Hogwarts

  
  


Rebeka watched as her sister began to fidget as they neared King's Cross. As Rebeka had done last year, Hollie and her were getting ready to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They had already gone to Diagon Alley - A Hidden place in London to buy magical items - to get everything they needed. Hollie wanted to get everything she saw, but they had stuck to the list because of what little Wizard money they had in Gringotts - the Wizard bank. Their parents were only just getting used to the fact that there children were, not only witches, but were invited to go to a school in England. At first, they didn't seem like they were going to be able to go, but with some help from the magical community, Rebeka and their father were able to move to England right after she had gotten her letter. Hollie and their mom had stayed behind to sell the house and get everything in order. They had finally just moved to England only a few months previous, right after Rebeka's first year. 

See, Rebeka and Hollies parents had only recently found out that they had magical blood in their veins. No one in the family knew it, and the magical world figured the Skyelar family of mages had died out long ago. They had figured it was because her family had moved to America 200 years ago to live life as Muggles (Non-magical folk), though she had no idea why they would do that. But because of this, Rebeka and Hollie were novices compared to some of her magical raised friends.

"What house are you in again?" Hollie looked up to Rebeka, who was gazing out the window, "HELLO?"

"Huh? Oh, Gryffindor, why?" She answered and diverted her attention to her bored looking sister. She had told Hollie a million times what her house was, but she always seemed to forget.

Holly's face contorted like she had just eaten a lemon, "Yuck," She spat, "I want to be in Ravenclaw."

Rebeka had never heard that before, "Why Ravenclaw?"

"Cuz it's a cool sounding name." Hollie answered as though annoyed, "Much better than Gryffindor, Slytherin, or HUFFLEPUFF."

"You'll get whatever the hat picks." Rebeka told her flatly, making the taxi driver glance at them. 

"Better be Ravenclaw." Hollie muttered under her breath. Rebeka just rolled her eyes and glanced out the window again. She knew Hollie was nervous, and she had every right to be since going to Hogwarts was an extreme honor. It was amazing that they even found Rebeka and Hollie all the way in America. 

As soon as she saw the King's Cross Station in the distance, Rebeka glanced behind her to see if they had everything. Books, cauldrons, wands and of course, money. She saw Hollie's broom stuffed in back too, Hollie had convinced Rebeka to buy her one, if Rebeka got to buy one when they got there. Hollie was hoping to try out for her houses Quidditch team, even though they usually didn't let first years play. Rebeka had watched the game last year, but didn't think she would try out, but she promised Hollie she would help her practice. Rebeka then sighed and glanced back to the front, noticing the cab driver looking at her through the mirror. 

"You're Americans, eh?" He asked, "Aren't you a li'le young t' be 'opping 'round Britain by yourselves?"

"Yeah, we're Americans, and don't worry, I've done it before." Rebeka answered quickly, he leered at her. Every single person who lived in Britain thought Rebeka was a tourist, never failed.

"W'at you doin' 'ere anyway?" He said in a flat tone, not really trusting the two young kids.

"Going to School…" Rebeka looked out the window again, so the taxi driver stopped talking to her. He quickly pulled into the King's Cross Station, making Rebeka smiled widely and she turned to look at Hollie. She was looking at the train station nervously, though she was trying to hide it, "Are you ready Hollie?"

"And so officialy starts the line of new Skyelar witches, with the addition of me." Hollie smiled and grabbed her trunk, the birdcage, and broom. Rebeka paid the man; pulled out her own trunk and the two quickly made their way to find the platform. 

"Got your letter?" Rebeka asked.

"Yes."

"Got your ticket?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure we got all your books before we left the hotel?"

"YES."

"Got Talon?" - Talon was Hollie's owl. He was resting peacefully in his cage with Videl - Rebeka's owl. 

"No. I'm holding this cage for nothing." Hollie rolled her eyes, "Stop worrying mother. Though I wish you would take the cage, you're only holding your trunk!"

"Fine, whiny. Here, I'll take it." Rebeka grabbed the birdcage and they continued to platforms nine and ten. When they got there Hollie threw her stuff down and looked around.

"How are we supposed to go again!?" Hollie squeaked out sitting on her trunk, Rebeka laughed.

"First year, eh?" A male voice laughed behind them, Hollie jumped, "She yours?"

Rebeka turned around to see two of her good friends, Adonis (Called Chad) Halwende, and Vinesah Kinsley. Both were from Britain and didn't have to travel too far to get to King's Cross. Hollie stared at Chad, he was extremely handsome.

"This is my sister Hollie, Hollie this is Adonis Halwende." Rebeka introduced.

"Call me Chad, I hate Adonis."

"Yeah, makes him sound like a Slytherin…" Vinesah joked and began to laugh.

"Why do I call you Chad?" Hollie asked him, entranced by Chad's handsome face.

"It's my middle name, I like it better." He gave her sister a bright smile; Vinesah rolled her eyes, then smiled.

"My names Vinesah Kinsley," Vinesah broke in, "Vinesah Hermione Kinsley."

"Is that middle name going to impress me?" Hollie snapped at her, Vinesah blinked.

"You don't know who Hermione Granger is?" Vinesah seemed insulted, "She is the greatest Muggle born witch in the world!"

"Oh, impressive…" Hollie said like she was bored.

"Are we ready?" Rebeka said quickly before a fight could break out. All of them looked at the barrier, and Holly looked at them confused. 

"Again how?" She asked snidely, "I don't see the platform of nine and three-quarters."

"Well, duh, your not supposed to see it." Vinesah laughed and shook her head, "First Years, I swear."

"Oh, come off it, you were a first year last year Vinesah." Chad defended and Vinesah shot him a look with her cold green eyes. 

"You go like this…" She grabbed her trunk in a huff and walked fast, straight toward the barrier. 

"What!? Are you insane!? You're gonna -" Before Hollie could finish, Vinesah had disappeared from sight. Hollie looked astonished, "Oh."

"You didn't tell her about this?" Chad leaned over to Rebeka as Hollie walked away from earshot.

"I tried, but we talked rarely on the phone when she was in America and she never wanted to hear about my great exploits in England." She answered in a harsh whisper, "She has a younger sister complex, she barely knows about the Sorting Hat."

"Oh, well, I'll help her out." Chad winked at Rebeka then walked up to Hollie, "Hollie, are you ready to go?"

"Huh?" Holly looked toward the barrier again, her face turned white, "Okay, but if this doesn't work, I'll kill you both."

Everyone gathered their things and walked up to the barrier. Hollie waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Chad and Rebeka looked around to see if there were any Muggles around, when the coast was clear they gave Hollie a hard shove into the barrier. She screamed then disappeared from sight, both of them began to laugh. 

"I hope she gets into the same house as me." Rebeka told Chad when she was gone, "Then I can help her out more."

"Doesn't seem like she wants your help, she seems stubborn." Chad said and walked back a little bit to walk into the barrier.

"She puts on a brave front." Rebeka smiled and looked down at her and Hollie's owls. Chad just shook his head as they both ran into the barrier together. 

The Scarlet train came into view with Hogwarts Express eleven o' clock on the overhead sign. Rebeka smiled, she was so excited to be going back. Then, a hand came up and smacked her in the head.

"Ow." Rebeka groaned and looked down, there was Hollie, looking pretty angry.

"Don't ever do that again! You scared me half to death!" She yelled, then her face softened as she began to get more excited, "Can we get on the train yet?"

"You go right ahead." Rebeka told her, Hollie took off with a grin.

"I'm gonna meet some of the other first years!" She yelled behind her and disappeared on to the scarlet train. 

"It's about time you two made it," Vinesah came into view with a smile, "Are you ready to get on board?"

"Sure," Rebeka sighed and began lugging all her stuff again, "You know, I keep having flashbacks of last year…When we were first years."

"Yeah what a time that was!" Vinesah exclaimed as they boarded the train. 

"At least you knew what you were doing Chad, me and Vinesah had no idea." Rebeka told him, he smiled. Chad had a long line of magical blood in him, and he knew it, unlike Rebeka. Vinesah was Muggle-born, just like Hermione Granger - her idol. Her parents ironically named her Vinesah Hermione; Vinesah took it as an omen of greatness. 

"I knew more than you did!" Vinesah argued, "I read a lot more than you."

"Yeah…" Rebeka mumbled as they took their seats. She began to think back when she was on the train, right before they pulled into Hogwarts last year…

  
  


"Anyone sitting here?" A young red headed girl asked Rebeka as she sat alone on the train.

"No, go on ahead." Rebeka moved Videl out of the way so the girl could sit down.

"I like your owl, what's its name?" She asked, peering at the reddish owl with the sharp blue eyes.

"Videl." Rebeka answer shortly, a little nervous about the girl just sitting down next to her. 

"I have a cat named Duo, he's around here somewhere." The girl looked around then sighed, "Oh, whatever. Anyway, I'm Vinesah, Vinesah Hermione Kinsley, V-I-N-E-S-A-H."

"I'm Rebeka, Rebeka Skyelar." She introduced herself, "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, me too. I'm meeting lots of people so I'll know someone when I'm picked for my house," Vinesah smiled and pulled out something labeled 'chocolate frog', "I want to be in Gryffindor, like the famous Hermione Granger was when she was in school."

"Oh, I don't really have a preference." Rebeka shrugged, "They're all fine to me."

"Don't say that! You may get stuck in Slytherin." Vinesah shuddered as though it had just gotten amazingly cold, "Those dang serpents."

"You're a little biased aren't you?" Rebeka smiled at her, Vinesah shot her a big toothy grin.

"Chocolate Frog?" She asked, and shoved one into Rebeka's hand.

"I like these, I had some when I went to Diagon Alley." She said as she unwrapped the package. She opened up the chocolate to reveal a trading card. Staring at her, smiling and waving uncomfortably, was Harry Potter. She turned the card over, it read:

  


HARRY POTTER

Probably one of the greatest wizards of our time.

  


"Isn't he just the cutest?" Vinesah blushed as she looked at the Harry card, "I have like 20 of them. He's so cool. I haven't found a Hermione yet, I've heard they make them, so I keep on buying the blasted things. You American?"

"Huh?" The question threw off Rebeka for a minute, "Um.. yes.."

"Oh, they don't usually let Americans come to Hogwarts, you got plenty of school over there." Vinesah told her with some smugness.

"Well, the letter I got was from here... they said that this was where I...I was supposed to go.."

Vinesah smiled at her, "Oh, right then. Well if Hogwart's beleives you're supposed to be here, then you are." She got much nicer after that.

Rebeka and Vinesah continued to talk until the train pulled into Hogwarts as a voice filled the train, "Welcome to Hogwarts. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

"We're here!" Vinesah screamed excitedly and grabbed Rebeka's hand, "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

Before Rebeka even had the chance to speak up, Vinesah was trying to drag her off of the train. She was walking too fast she ran straight into the guy in front of her. He turned around and looked at her with dark brown eyes, he then flashed her a big smile, showing off his brilliant white teeth. Rebeka almost choked, he was extremely good looking. 

"Hey a little overly excited aren't we?" He asked Vinesah, she smiled.

"Of course! It's Hogwarts!" She exclaimed, the guy smiled and moved out of the way.

"Then, go ahead of me, by all means," He bowed a little, "Since you're more excited than I am."

"Thanks!" Vinesah grabbed Rebeka again and took off past the cute boy; Rebeka couldn't help but take one more look at him as they got off the train. He noticed and smiled at her, she blushed furiously and looked away, "HE was absolutely adorable don't you think?"

"Um…yeah." Rebeka looked around at the dark platform, but she quickly forgot about the cute boy on the train. Now she was only thinking about her nerves as they stood on the platform, waiting for what would happen next. 

"Fir' Years! Fir' Years over here!" A big bellowy voice came seemingly from out of no where. Out of the blue came a giant man, with an even bigger beard, looking at all of the students with leering eyes.

"That's Jingry, the new gameskeeper. He was just appointed this year." Vinesah whispered to Rebeka, "He looks just like Hagrid, one of the older gamekeepers don't you think?"

"I don't know what Hagrid looked like." Rebeka told her, Vinesah laughed.

"Oh, then he looked just like Jingry." 

The two followed the other students toward Jingry, who looked them all over again.

"Anymore of ya? Hurry up then, Follow me." Jingry began to walk down a narrow path, pulling all the first years away from the other students. As they all continued to walk, rather silently, they noticed a castle coming up from around the corner. It was extraordinary. Rebeka even heard Vinesah "wow" as they came across a shoreline with many boats. 

"Okay, on the boat, No more'n four to a boat!" Jingry yelled and everyone began to file into a boat. A nervous looking girl and a tough looking boy followed them on to theirs and they descended to the castle.

"I hope this isn't spooky." The girl murmured to them all.

"Oh don't worry," Vinesah told her, "Hogwarts only has a few ghosts and you rarely see them anyway."

"G-ghosts?" the girl stammered and began to bite her nails; Vinesah leaned over to Rebeka.

"Oops. I guess I shouldn't have said anything." She whispered, Rebeka rolled her eyes.

"I ain't afraid of any Ghost." The Boy said, "I'll hurt 'em good."

"You can't hurt something that's DEAD." The girl told him, he just shrugged and crossed his arms. 

"Watch yer heads!" Jingry called from the front boat. Everyone ducked, as they went into a tunnel in the cliff side that was covered in vines. They went through a dark tunnel until they all reached a harbor, "'kay! Ever'one out now!"

"Let's go!" Vinesah whispered loudly. 

"Hey, how come you know so much about Hogwarts?" Rebeka asked her as they got off the boat, "Are you a magic blood?"

"No, I just got a book from Diagon Alley," Vinesah smiled, "I'm Muggle born, just like Hermione! What about you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I just found out I was of Wizard Blood this summer. None of my family knew." Rebeka answered and Vinesah blinked at her.

"Strange…"

"Yeah."

"Your family was just probably to far away to keep up with the others and somehow forgot what they were." Vinesah theorized, she was partially right, but Rebeka didn't want to tell her that her family didn't want to be wizards anymore…not until now anyway. 

"Yeah, probably." Rebeka shrugged it off. 

"Up the stairs everyone!" Jingry ordered than pounded on a big wooden door, "Let us in! Firs' years right 'ere!

The door opened to see a woman who looked rather old, in a green robe, "Calm down Jingry I know you're there."

"Jus' making sure McGonagall." Jingry snapped at her, it was clear the two didn't like each other. Vinesah gasped.

" Professor McGonagall is still here! BRILLIANT!" She exclaimed, Rebeka just looked at her, "I didn't know that."

"That's shocking." Rebeka smiled.

"I don't keep up with the faculty unfortunately. I only know that Jingry the new games keeper and Snape is still here." She answered, but before Rebeka could ask who Snape was, McGonagall raised her hand. 

"Let us go." She ordered and had the students follow her up a grand marble staircase. All followed her cautiously and they began to hear the voices of many students coming from some room. At first they all thought they would go into the room, but instead they went just down the hall into a smaller chamber. Professor McGonagall let them talk out their anxieties for a minute then held up her hand again.

"Form a line everyone! The Sorting Ceremony is about to start…" She told them all, everyone buzzed with excitement and began forming the line. Vinesah, who was in front of her, turned to Rebeka nervously.

"I hope we get the same house." She whispered, "If not, then we have to stay friends okay?" 

"Sure, but I don't see why we wouldn't be in the same house." Rebeka whispered back and noticed McGonagall leering at them. 

"Okay, Follow me." She told the first years and they began walking yet again into the double door of the great hall. As soon as she entered, Rebeka was in shock. Thousands of candles were suspended in mid air, lighting up the room around them. There were dozens of table lined up in four neat rows, all which held many students and gold cups and plates. Near the front of the hall was the long table where all of the teachers were sitting, that's where McGonagall led them all too. Then Rebeka looked up at the ceiling, since she had seen pictures of it in books; it was just as enchanting as she thought. It was riddled with thousands of glittering stars, like they were really outside. Vinesah gave Rebeka a smile and quickly looked ahead of her. It was clear after all the reading she had done, Vinesah was still very impressed. Then, silently Professor McGonagall placed a stool in the middle, and then an old wizards hat on hop of that. It must have been the Sorting Hat she had heard about, though it looked pretty dusty and old. She wondered how it worked, and then it began to speak:

  


Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me

There's nothing in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see

So try me one and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

  


Rebeka was so entranced by the hat she hardly heard what it was saying, and then it began saying the houses:

  


You might be a Gryffindor

Where dwell the brave at heart

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff

Where they are just and loyal

Those patient Hufflepuff are true

And unafraid of toil.

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw

If you're ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning

Will always find their kind

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

  


After that Rebeka zoned out a little bit and began to think of what house she would like to be in. From the sound of it, she wouldn't want to be in Slytherin, they sounded too ruthless for her taste. After the poem was done and said, she had decided she would like to be in Ravenclaw, though she would like Gryffindor if Vinesah were in it. Everyone began whooping and clapping loudly as Professor McGonagall brought out a list to read from. 

"Well, here it goes!" Vinesah yelled loudly, "Gryffindor here I come!"

"Aaon, Alexander!" She called and a boy with a round face and blonde hair stepped up and put on the very big hat. There was a slight pause.

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted out. 

The Ravenclaw table began whooping very loudly as he went to go sit with them. Rebeka noticed them patting him and welcoming him to the house. Rebeka waited as the kids began filing toward the hat; she was also looking for someone she knew.

"Bellowood, Kristina!" Professor McGonagall called, and the nervous looking girl from the boat went to put on the hat, looking even more nervous. Rebeka took note of her name. When the hat was on, it seemed to be taking awhile, like it was having trouble deciding.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" It then screamed. She smiled and happily went to the cheering Hufflepuff table. Again there was no one she recognized as they began to go to their tables.

"Craft, William!"

The tough looking boy stepped up and put on the hat. Rebeka was almost sure he would get Slytherin, but sure enough -

"RAVENCLAW!!" The hat screeched. William threw his hands up triumphantly, like that was the house he had picked. Rebeka looked over to one of the tables; they seemed to be getting a little angry.

"GIVE US SOME MORE GRYFFINDOR, HAT!" A girl yelled. Rebeka counted back in her head and realized there had only been two Gryffindor picked. 

"Beth! Do calm down!" Professor McGonagall chastised the girl, who just laughed.

"GRYFFINDOR YA OLD HAT!" Beth screamed again, the Gryffindor table began to cheer. Unfortunately for her though, the next few went to Slytherin and Hufflepuff. 

"Halwende, Adonis."

The cute boy from before stepped up and put on the hat, Vinesah gasped.

"That's Adonis Halwende?" She said, her voice squeaking.

"Yeah, so?" Rebeka asked, watching him put on the hat.

"His family are some of the most famous magic users in the world!" Vinesah began to get excited again, "And we ran into him!"

Rebeka didn't say anything as she watched the hat decide what house he was going into. Maybe he would get Ravenclaw so they could both be in it together, which would be cool. 

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat screamed and the Gryffindor table cheered louder than any other table before. 

"THAT'S THE STUFF!" Beth screamed happily, then looked to the Slytherin, "WE GOT A HALWENDE YA BUGGERS!"

The Slytherin table obviously looked disappointed and scowled at her. 

"He's in Gryffindor!" Vinesah sighed, "I have to get in Gryffindor now!"

Rebeka smiled and began to get anxious, when was her turn! She didn't know if she could stand it! 

"Kinsley, Vinesah!" 

Vinesah looked at Rebeka nervously then walked over to try on the hat. Rebeka prayed that whatever house Vinesah got, she be in the same one…

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"What!?" Vinesah exclaimed, people who heard it began to laugh. The Hufflepuff table cheered loudly and Vinesah looked disappointed. When she sat at the table she crossed her arms as everyone began congratulating her. Rebeka couldn't help but smile, but from then on she hoped she was in Hufflepuff. She watched as the line dwindled down and still her name hadn't been called. She began to get that antsy feeling again, until finally…

"Skyelar, Rebeka!"

It was her name! It was time for her to put on the old hat! Rebeka practically ran toward it and put in on quickly, the hat covering her eyes. Nothing happened and she sighed.

"I'm not an old hat! I'm weathered." A voice said in her ear, making her jump, "Hmmm… you have a lot of potential that you have never used…I can see you are very brave and extroverted…You want to be Hufflepuff because of your friend? Oh dear, I know of a much better place to put you…I can see before you didn't have a preference, don't worry you'll see your friend anyway….So better be GRYFFINDOR!!!"

The Gryffindor table began to cheer wildly, which told her that last bit was said out loud. She took off the hat and glanced at Vinesah, who gave her thumbs up. Whew, she was glad Vinesah wasn't mad at her. She walked down and everyone began congratulating her. 

"That's good!" Beth walked over to her, "You'll do good in Gryffindor Rebeka! I'm Beth, the Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team!"

"Hi, what year are you?" Rebeka asked shyly.

"2nd, of course!" Beth looked over to the hat, "I just wish the hat would give us MORE BLOODY GRYFFINDOR! Gryffindor's numbers are much less than Slytherin."

"Oh, well, lucky me." Rebeka shrugged and Beth laughed, then continued to taunt the hat.

"Hey, I know you, your friend ran into me." Adonis was sitting next to her, she barely noticed.

"Yeah…I guess we're in the same house." Rebeka replied and blushed slightly, "I'm Rebeka Skyelar."

"Adonis Halwende…but please call me Chad. It's my middle name. I like it better." Adonis…er…Chad gave her a big smile, she nodded. Maybe being in Gryffindor wouldn't be so bad….

  


"Are you excited about seeing your sister get sorted?" Chad asked her as they sat at the Gryffindor table. Vinesah had already taken her seat with the Hufflepuff's, and they were whooping loudly. 

"Of course! I know she'll get Gryffindor," Rebeka told him, "They wouldn't spilt up sisters!"

"You'd be surprised." Chad laughed and patted her shoulder, "You're nervous, I can tell. It's like you're a first year all over again."

"Yeah, I know. It's weird…Sympathy Anxiety I guess." Rebeka shrugged and they both laughed. 

"EH! Rebeka!" A Familiar voice yelled to her, she turned to look. Standing there was Beth, now a third year at Hogwarts, smiling at her, "Made it back in one piece I see!"

"Beth! Hey." Beth was the loudmouthed Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, she was the one most likely to yell the referee for a bogus call. She was also the one who yelled at the hat every year.

"Think the hat will give us Gryffindor this year?" Beth asked, "Or do you think Slytherin will get 'em all."

Rebeka opened her mouth to speak, but Beth wasn't done.

" - Those blasted Serpents better not take anymore I'll tell ya. Or I'll have to hurt someone." Beth smiled at Rebeka then sat down next to her. Everyone began filing in just as the first years came inside with McGonagall. She saw Holly and her stomach did flip-flops…here they go…a whole New year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

  


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A/N: All done! See, that didn't hurt did it? Hoped you like it! Give me feedback!


	2. The Unforgettable Sorting

A/N: You probably noticed that the poem from the last chapter was actually from the first book. Well, that's me being lazy. I figure the hat can recycle the ones that he likes and does so when he deems necessary, and he just deemed it necessary. Trust me, my rhyming skills are awful... you'll find that out later and you'll be like "Oh, she's right." 

Anyway, on to my interesting tid-bits of information. None of the people I based the characters off of got to pick their houses (Not even myself, can you tell which character is based off me? I hope not.), they all had to take a test and be sorted by a website and then tell me what they got. That took about a month for everyone who wanted to be in the story to do, since there are a ton of characters. 

At this point my favorite character is Beth, she is so funny when it comes to yelling at the hat and she is a blast to write. Well, enough with my rambling, on with the story, eh?

  


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Chapter 2:

The Unforgettable Sorting

(GRYFFINDOR)

  


And so the Sorting Began, the hat did it's poem and the First years looked at it with wonder in their eyes. It seemed to take forever; she just wanted to know that Hollie would be safe and sound under Gryffindor's wing. Professor McGonagall was calling out the names of students and the sorting hat was telling them where to go, again this year not that many people were getting put into Gryffindor, which made Beth mad.

"GRYFFINDOR DUSTY!" She called to the hat and laughed, "Gee's every year."

"Daylong, Marcus." 

The boy near the front of the line put on the hat, Beth crossed her fingers.

"RAVENCLAW"

"BLOODY 'ELL!" Beth said loudly, Professor McGonagall gasped.

"BETH! You don't want points deducted from Gryffindor already do you?" She stared at Beth, who smiled and shook her head no, "Then refrain please!"

Every year the houses were given points that could be taken away when a member did something wrong or given when a member did something good. The house with the most points won the House Cup. This was a big honor for any of the houses and usually caused a huge rivalry between them all. Slytherin and Ravenclaw won mostly, but Gryffindor fought every year to try and win. Beth stopped the cussing but kept yelling at the hat as more and more people began to get into other groups. Only a handful had gotten into Gryffindor.

"Fich, Jernum." 

"Fich, he's defiantly a -"

"RAVENCLAW" The hat yelled happily

"THEY HAVE ENOUGH!" Beth yelled after it called the house. Ravenclaw cheered. One of the Slytherin members turned to Beth.

"Jealous Bethers?" Said a buy with gleaming white hair and dark complextion. 

"Shut up you Muggle." Beth stuck her tongue out at him, he rolled his eyes. 

"Who's that?" One of the new Gryffindor's asked.

"Jason Kreeger, ignore him, he's just a Slytherin Chaser…" Beth mumbled to the student. 

Slowly but surely every kid got their turn, and it seemed that more Gryffindor were picked this year, but Beth was still yelling. 

"Prior, Lee!"

Suddenly everyone got really quiet and stared at the rail thin black haired boy began to walk toward the front. Rebeka looked over to the Slytherin table; they seemed to be staring at Lee awfully intensely. The Gryffindor table was doing the exact same thing however, making her wonder who this guy was.

"What going on?" Rebeka asked Chad, he just shrugged, so she looked toward Beth for an answer.

"The Prior Twins are some of the best Quidditch players in the world. They're mum and dad are both part of famous teams." Beth whispered as Lee made his way to the hat, "Whatever house gets them will be lucky."

"What makes you so sure that they'll get into the same house?" Chad asked Beth, who rolled her eyes.

"Because they're twins!" She answered and looked over at the Slytherin table, "Lee is made for Slytherin, he's ruthless enough…but Tony is more Gryffindor or Hufflepuff…it's all up to the hat…HEAR ME HAT!?"

Lee put on the hat and it seemed to take forever to come up with a decision, everyone just sat there silently and waited for the Sorting hat to say something.

"SLYTHERIN!" 

Slytherin began to cheer loudly as the others moaned. Lee smiled and walked down to his new house, who were embracing him with open arms.

"Oh come on! Slytherin is already unbeatable!" Beth sighed in disappointment, "Why do they get the Prior twins!?"

"Prior, Tony!"

Tony walked over and glanced at his brother at the Slytherin table. Something told Rebeka that Tony didn't want to be in Slytherin, he seemed disappointed that Lee got chosen for that house.

"Tony won't make it in Slytherin, he's not evil enough." Beth muttered angrily, "He can't brown nose well either…"

Tony put on the hat and awaited the final verdict like it was his death sentence. He seemed kind of reluctant, but Slytherin was getting exciting about having both Twins in their house. 

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The Great Hall suddenly became very quiet as they realized what the Sorting Hat said. Beth lifted her head and began to smile, so did about 5 other Gryffindor's, who Rebeka guessed were all Quidditch players. 

"GRYFFINDOR!!!" Beth yelled happily through the quiet, "THAT'S THE STUFF YA OLD HAT! NOW YOU'RE GETTING USEFULL!"

"Miss Morgan, are you quite finished?" McGonagall snapped angrily, "Do you want to end up in detention like your friend Miss Wasil?"

Before she could answer, everyone at the Gryffindor table began cheering wildly and Tony smiled a great big smile of relief as he went over and sat at the table next to Rebeka. Even the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws were cheering, it was much better than having both twins on the Slytherin team. Tony glanced at Lee, who was leering at him angrily.

"Hi, Tony is it?" Rebeka introduced herself before Beth could talk about Quidditch. Fortunatly, Beth was too busy rubbing it into the Slytherins faces that they weren't unbeatable just yet.

"Yeah…it is." He said not looking at her; instead he was looking down, staring at his shoes. 

"Well, welcome to Gryffindor!" Rebeka extended her hand and he looked up too her.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked her, she looked at him confused.

"Beth told me something about the Prior twins just now, but before this…no." Rebeka told him, the question made Chad glance in his direction. 

"At least somebody's clueless." Tony mumbled under his breath, making Rebeka give Chad a glance. 

"I'm Adonis Halwende…" Chad introduced himself, "You can call me -"

"ADONIS HALWENDE!" Tony yelled excitedly, "I knew you were at this school but I didn't know you were a Gryffindor, everyone told me you would be Ravenclaw for sure! I am such a big fan of your fathers."

Rebeka's face contorted in confusion, "Your fathers? Who's your dad?"

"It's not important," Chad waved her off and smiled at Tony, "You can call me Chad though."

Tony looked at Rebeka wondering if he should let her in on the whole thing, but Chad shook his head and Tony went back to looking at his shoes. 

"What are you not telling me Adonis?" Rebeka glared at him with her blue eyes. Chad sighed; she only called him that when she was getting mad at him.

"It's nothing you shouldn't concern yourself with." Chad smiled at her, then quickly looked away. She hated when he did that. 

"Skyelar, Hollie!"

Rebeka's heart jumped, when did they get to her sister? She watched as Hollie confidently strolled over to the hat and quickly put it on her head. This was it, Hollie would be a Gryffindor and they would be able to practice Quidditch together and Rebeka could help Hollie with all her homework and - 

"SLYTHERIN!"

She about had a heart attack. Slytherin? That couldn't be right!? There had to be a mistake.

"YOU DUMB OLD HAT!" Spat a Gryffindor, but this time it wasn't Beth, it was Rebeka. 

"Miss Rebeka Skyelar, Refrain please!" McGonagall yelled, "I think you need to stop letting Beth influence you."

Holly shrugged at Rebeka and gingerly made her way to the Slytherin table, where Lee greeted her quickly along with Jason. 

"Bek, are you okay?" Chad leaned over and whispered in her ear. 

"It's a dumb old hat…" Rebeka crossed her arms angrily, "Why did she have to get Slytherin?"

"Um, honestly if you think about it, it does fit…" Chad said trying not to make her mad, "Hollie is kind of ruthless and pushy."

"Yeah but still…" Rebeka muttered than sighed loudly, "She's my sister! Now she's all alone at Slytherin, they're just gonna corrupt her, I know it and -"

"Rebeka," Chad said softly, pointing to the front, "The Ceremony is over."

That was it then, Hollie was going to be Slytherin all seven years she would be at Hogwarts, it didn't seem fair that the hat put two sisters against each other. The Head Master, Elzidor Radcliffe, began to talk about how wonderful it was to see so many first years. The speech was always the same so Rebeka just tuned it out and looked over at the Slytherin table, where crowds of people were surrounding the new Slytherin first years. Rebeka just kept getting angrier and angrier. Then, in a flash there was food all over the place. The feast had begun, but Rebeka wasn't really that hungry, she just wanted to crawl into a bed and sleep this nightmare away. 

"Rebeka, I think you should eat something…" Chad whispered and put some mashed potatoes on her plate, "Come on they're your favorite…"

Rebeka's stomach rumbled, longing for her to put it in her mouth, "I'm not hungry."

Chad was about to say something about it when a brown haired girl burst into the room with a high pitched laugh.

"THEY CAN'T KEEP THE GRYFFINDOR DOWN!!!" She sang, Beth looked up and smiled.

"Cryssy!" She exclaimed and Cryssy when down and sat across from Rebeka. Cryssy was the overly exuberant 4th year at Hogwarts. She was fun to be around and Rebeka liked her a lot. She was also the commentator for all Quidditch games, which a lot of people found fitting because she was unbelievably loud.

"What did you do this time?" Rebeka asked and began playing with her mashed potatoes. Cryssy began to gather food on her plate.

"Those danged Slytherins were torturing some Hufflepuff so I went over there and yelled at them for it…and some how they ended up with bloody noses…" Cryssy shrugged, "The Slytherins didn't get in trouble though…Snape caught us, said it was my fault…everything."

"Ugh, I wish that evil old man would retire already." Beth groaned and shoved a forkful in her mouth, "He's too into favoritism, I mean even Professor McGonagall takes points from us!"

"Not every teacher can be likeable you know." A girl told Beth with a snotty undertone.

"Oh shut up Janella…" Beth rolled her eyes. Janella was the resident teachers pet, even Snape seemed to have some affection toward her. It annoyed everybody in Gryffindor and in the other houses also, to no end. 

Everyone was eating and talking up a storm, even Chad and Tony were having fun and talking rapidly (Though Chad was making sure to talk very low for some reason), but not Rebeka. She barely picked at the mashed potatoes that were in front of her, very disappointed that her sister would be in the same house as her the whole time she was in Hogwarts. 

"What is wrong with you?" Cryssy asked Rebeka as she began to reach for more food, "You look like Snape just deducted 200 points from Gryffindor."

"My little sister was sorted into Slytherin…" Rebeka answered grimly.

"Oh, that's gotta be tough." Cryssy looked over to the Slytherin table, "But from what you've told me about her they'll be begging us to take her in 6 months."

"Well, I only said those things because I thought she would be in Gryffindor," She argued, putting a small amount of mashed potatoes in her mouth, "Even Hollie isn't evil enough to be with the serpents."

"I think she'll be just fine…" She heard Chad mutter under his breath, Rebeka shot him a look. 

After what seemed like forever, Radcliffe waved his hands and the gold plates became foodless and as sparkly as ever. He smiled and waved his arm again, this time thousands of desserts appeared and everyone began to grab at them like they hadn't had dinner only moments before. Rebeka looked away from her plate, sighed, and then looked back - sitting there was a giant butterscotch sundae sitting on it. She looked at Chad, who was smiling at her.

"Are you trying to take Vinesah's job at being the mother?" She asked him annoyed, he shrugged and pointed at Cryssy, "Oh, I see, you're both in on it."

"Chad's right, you need to eat something." Cryssy gave her a big smile, "You have to get your strength up for when you try out for Quidditch."

"What makes you think I'm trying out for Quidditch?" Rebeka asked and shoved a spoon into the cold treat on her plate, "I barely know the rules of the game."

"Well, Vinesah and Hollie are both trying out, Remember?" Cryssy explained, "It's stands to reason you would too."

Cryssy always knew who was trying out for Quidditch, a soccer/rugby hybrid played on broomsticks, because she was so involved in the sport. She and Madam Hooch went over the list every year of potential players and Cryssy had put Hollie, Vinesah, and Rebeka on the list ages ago.

"We'll see, I might have too much homework." Rebeka began eating the butterscotch sundae so everyone would leave her alone. Radcliffe began to talk about the school rules ("Under no circumstances will any students be permitted to go into the forest! It is very dangerous…"), then, as soon as she put the empty glass down, all the desserts disappeared from the tables and it was time to go up to the quarters. 

Everyone began filing out of the Great Hall and making they're way to their house's resident dormitories. Rebeka looked over and saw Hollie, who gave her a small wave as they went their separate ways. She remained silent as she walked up the stairs and down the corridor to get to the fat lady's portrait. Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor's resident ghost, was standing in the hall waving to all the first years, who were looking at him with shock on their faces. He then saw Cryssy and he gasped in happiness.

"Cryssy my dear!" He yelled happily, "I am so glad to see you!"

"Nick!" Cryssy exclaimed, "How was your summer?"

"Aw terrible," Nick looked down sadly, "Peeves would not leave anybody alone!"

"You'll get him back someday Nick!" Cryssy then walked passed him; he gave her away and floated off toward the back of the crowd. They walked up to the fat lady, who looked at the first years and smiled.

"There are more than last year!" She exclaimed happily, "Password?"

"Tallonius Figs." The prefect, Hollister Grant, said to the lady and the portrait swung open. Everyone took mental note of the password as they went inside the Gryffindor common room, a round room full of feather filled armchairs. Hollister was directing everyone to bed, separating the boys and the girls

Rebeka looked into her room and was happy to see Videl sitting in her own cage by her bed. Beth was right behind her, brushing her blond hair before she went to bed. Beth had arranged for Rebeka to be in her room last year, which wasn't hard because there were so few Gryffindor so most of the rooms didn't have the four people they could have. So Rebeka shared a room with two 3rd years and another 2nd year.

"It's actually really nice to be back here." Beth sighed and fell back onto her bed; "My bed at home isn't nearly as comfortable."

"Mine either!" The other second year, Merriam Greenwalde, sighed, "I'm so tired too."

Pretty soon all of the girls in Rebeka's room were sound asleep, except for Rebeka of course. No, Rebeka's eyes were wide open as she looked at the darkened room. She sighed and threw herself out of bed and began to pace, muttering to herself about the Ceremony.

"Why would they think Hollie would be a good Slytherin? And why did the Sorting Hat spilt up the Prior twins?" She mumbled, "Was it all just a coincidence? Why would we get Tony and they get Hollie? And what is Chad being so secretive about…nothing makes sense to me…"

"Oh goodness Bek, if your going to talk to yourself, do it somewhere where I'm not trying to sleep!" Beth's annoyed voice rose from the corner bed next to the door. Rebeka blushed and quietly made her way to the commons room. Even though it was empty, the fire was roaring from the front fireplace. She walked over and piled herself into the overstuffed chair closest to it. She stared at the orange flames, hoping they would answer her questions and lure her to sleep. Unfortunately, they provided nothing but warmth, so she does stared at them disappointed.

"What are doing up still?" A voice said over in the next chair, she turned to see Chad sitting there with a questioning glance, "Can't sleep?"

"That's obvious isn't it?" She answered and turned back to watch the flames again. 

"Are you waiting for those to change colors or something?" He joked, then waved his wand, " Fira Turnicus!"

The fire began turning shades that normal fires never changed too; pinks, greens, and beautiful sapphire blues. Rebeka rolled her eyes; she hated that Chad was so good at magic. He made her look so incompetent. 

"Do you use that to impress the girls in Gryffindor?" She asked him snidely, he laughed.

"Of course I do my dear, of course I do. Now why are you still up? That Hollie thing not getting to you is it?"

"Yes and no." She looked over at him again, "It's many different things. One day back at Hogwarts and already my life's a soap opera."

"Well knock one of your problems off on me." He smiled, so she smiled. 

"Well, the most confusing one is my family, did I ever tell you about them?" She gave him a sideways glance as he shook his head no, "My family are supposedly magic users, but for some reason they ran off to live as Muggles. We've been trying to figure out why for almost 2 years now and we haven't been able to find out anything."

Chad looked away from her, "That's weird, do you know why they left?"

"Nope, no clue. My mother supposes that maybe they just got sick of it, but that seems a little off," She said, confused, "I mean what witch do you know would just happen to get sick of being a witch?"

"None that I know of." He chuckled a little bit, "How come you never told me about this sooner?"

"Don't know, I feel like it's a bad thing or something." She shrugged, "Like maybe someone around here knows a dark secret about my past and if I tell them, then everyone will hate me."

"I don't hate you," Chad put his head down to look at his wand, "And I wouldn't hate you if I did know what the Skyelars did."

"We only recently found out that dad and grandpa are both wizards. My grandpa keeps trying to turn things into frogs. It never worked, they turn blue or something." Rebeka smiled at the thought of her grandpa.

"Interesting... Skyelar huh?" He asked her.

"Yeah."

"They aren't that well known." Chad shrugged, but still didn't look at her; "Those who are known I beleive are known for their scientific research in Magic use. Back in the day there were Skylars who wants to find out exaclty why magic worked. They disapeared around 200 years ago, they're probably your family."

"How do you know that?" Rebeka yawned, but Chad didn't seem to notice.

"I know all the magic users surnames, my dad taught them to me…" Chad suddenly got very quiet and looked away from her yet again. 

"Is something wrong?" Rebeka put her hand on his arm, but he pulled away from her quickly.

"Nothing that sleep can't fix, I assure you my dear." He looked over and gave her a fake smile. 

"I don't believe you." She said gruffly, he smiled.

"Good you shouldn't." He joked, "But it's nothing you should concern yourself with."

"Why not? Tell me what's wrong." Rebeka crossed her arms and stared at him.

"It's family issues too, but it is totally different from your problem."

"Is it your dad?" She asked, he looked at her with wide eyes, "What? Every time somebody mentions him you him to cringe."

"I don't cringe!" Chad argued making her smile.

"It's very slight, but I notice it…" She sighed, "I wish you would tell me about him, maybe I can help."

Chad smirked at her, "Now is not the time for me to tell you everything, but I will say that he is a famous wizard with physic abilities…if you lived in the Wizard world more, you would hear about him eventually."

That's true, even in London her and her father still lived as muggles. She had absolutely no idea what was going on in the wizarding world.

"Do you not like your dads fame?" Rebeka was so full of questions that it made Chad uncomfortable.

"No, but there are many things about him I don't like." Chad slumped in his chair, "But like I said, now is not the time."

"Well, when will be the time?"

"You'll know." Chad turned the fire back to the bright orange it once was and stood up, "I'm going to bed, I would suggest you do the same."

"Okay father…" She smiled and stood up as well. Both said their good-byes and went back to their rooms. Rebeka was dead tired when she walked into her room and over to her bed, it had suddenly hit her as she was walking up the stairs. She said goodnight to Videl and turned toward her bed - a note lay on the pillow. She looked around, wondering who left it there, she thought she was the only one still awake. Looking around her room she noticed that her roommates had been soundly sleeping, so most likely it wasn't one of them. Rebeka then walked over and picked up her wand.

"Lumos!" She whispered and a small white light appeared at the end of her wand. She then picked it up and read what was scribbled on it:

  


_Skyelar,_

_You had better leave if you know what Is good for you. Leave and never look back, go back to the Muggle world you Are used too…Before you and your sister get hurt…._

Rebeka dropped the letter like it was on fire and ran over to Beth, who was still sleeping. She began to shake her wildly.

"BETH!" She hissed in Beth's ear, Beth groaned, "BETH!"

"What!?" Beth replied in a scratchy, tired voice, "What are you doing waking me up again?"

"Did anyone come in here while you guys were asleep?" Rebeka asked, Beth opened her eyes.

"Yeah you left, then you came back like 5 minutes ago and left again." She answered, "Now your back again…Mystery solved, go to sleep."

"I just got back, I wasn't here five minutes ago." Rebeka exclaimed is a loud whisper.

"Huh?" Beth began to sit up, "Then who came in here?"

"I don't know," Rebeka threw the letter down on Beth's lap, "But they left me this."

Beth picked it up and read it, getting help some Rebeka's lit up wand. When she was done her eyes got wide and she looked up at Rebeka, "Who would write this?"

"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with my family history," Rebeka sighed and Beth put her hand on her chin.

"We'll tell Professor McGonagall about it first thing in the morning, maybe she'll know something." Beth thought out loud and Rebeka sighed.

"You don't think they're serious do you?"

"Of course not! It's probably somebody's idea of a joke." Beth smiled, "Now go to bed, it'll all be solved in the morning."

Rebeka didn't say anything and began to walk back to her bed. She waved her wand and the light went out, so she crawled underneath the covers. Again though, she couldn't sleep, now she was wouldn't about if the letter was serious. What if it was? Then, what would she do? Her and her sister aren't as strong as mages as some people here are, since they hadn't had years of practice. They couldn't take most of the kids here. This began to worry Rebeka again and she hardly got any sleep that night.

  


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A/N: Oh the letter of doom! Somebody wants Rebeka out of there. Don't think that will happen though or else the story would end rather abruptly. "And so she leaves.... The End." haha. 

Well, thanks for reading! Review if you want too!


	3. The Good and Bad Team Players

A/N: My first chapter outside of Rebeka's perspective. This one switches over to Slytherin house and Hollie takes over in the narration. I have to say that this Chapter was really fun to write. You'll see why and I'll explain more at the bottom (Does that give you incentive to read it all the way through?). 

The only little tid-bit of info I have for this chapter was that this Fanfiction gave me a respect for Fanfiction writers who wrote about things on Hogwart's grounds. It's extremely hard to do, a lot harder than I though, because you have to make sure everything is as accurate as possible. 

  


Well, on with the story!

  


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Chapter 3:

The Good and Bad Team Players

(SLYTHERIN)

  


Hollie went to her first class with some older Slytherins, who told her how certain doors needed to be opened in certain ways and how the staircases moved at certain times. She was the first one in Professor Snape's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, except for Professor Snape of course. She walked in cautiously, not wanting to make a bad impression on her first day of school. She sat in one of the back corner desks and waiting as Snape began writing things on the board behind him. 

"Miss Skyelar, I presume?" He said without even turning around, she blushed a bit and stared at the back of his head.

"Um, yeah, that's me." She piped up, trying to sound confident. He turned to look at her; he glared at her like he was trying to read her.

"Eager to get started?" Snape asked again, "Not many students want to be early to one of my classes you know."

"Well, I have no idea who you are," She replied, "So I have no opinion about you yet."

The answer seemed to please him because he smirked and resumed writing on the board. After a minute more Slytherin and some Ravenclaw - the house they had this class with - began filing in. One girl with long black hair sat down next to Hollie and smiled. Her name was Marigold, but her name sounded much happier than she actually was. Her black hair constantly covered her pale face and she was never seen without somewhat of a frown. Hollie sighed, since Marigold was one of her roommates she was kind of happy to see a familiar face. 

"Hollie, I'm so glad you're here, I was scared I was going to have to sit alone." Marigold exclaimed in a monotone voice. 

"Yeah, me too…" Hollie looked passed Marigold's head and saw even more people piling into the class, there seemed to be 30 or 40 when everyone was done coming in. She noticed the black haired frail looking boy who got sorted into the house with her, Lee. He was talking to another girl with brownish hair, she thought her name was Tiffany. Hollie noticed Lee look over to her and give her a scowl; she began to glare back at him, not afraid of the evil kid who was so good at Quidditch. He was nice when they first started, but less then 24 hours later all of his popularity seemed to have gone to his head.

"Who does that guy think he is anyway?" Hollie spat to Marigold, who turned to look and see whom she was talking about.

"Lee Prior?" Marigold squeaked, "He's only one of the best Quidditch players in the whole world! He got his talent from his parents…they say they're going to let him be on the team without even having to try out, you know, because they need a new Beater and a new seeker."

"Really? A Seeker huh?" Hollie murmured to really no one. Hollie began to get excited; the Seeker was the one who needed to catch the Snitch - a small golden ball in Quidditch that was worth 150 points- to end the game. She could do that; she would just need to prove to the other players that she was good enough. At that moment she kind of wished that her last name were Prior. 

"Hey Marigold, when's the last time you went out into the sun exactly?" Lee yelled to Marigold, who didn't answer, she just looked away.

"Really, The Goth look is so out!" A Blond girl sitting with Lee exclaimed and laughed loudly, so Marigold could hear. Hollie began to get angry and she stood up furiously.

"I wouldn't talk Lee, you look like if I touched you, you would snap like a twig." She yelled so he could hear, everyone got quiet, "When's the last time you ate a sandwich? Hate to tell you but the waif look is out."

"Excuse me?" Lee asked her, she smiled and snapped her attention to the blond girl.

"And you! Lose some weight will ya?" Hollie then sat down, "I'm shocked you don't break a chair…"

The whole class began to laugh, and Lee's group quickly shut up about Marigold. Marigold gave Holly a rare smile.

"I can't believe you stood up to them!" She said, "They've been torturing me since they saw me on the train."

"Nice Job…" A boy in front of her mumbled to her and turned around. He then turned around, he was a handsome boy with somewhat wavy black hair and a clean appearance, she guessed him as Ravenclaw because every Slytherin seemed to have a scowl plastered on their face, "I'm Jack, by the way."

"I'm Hollie, what house?"

"Slytherin." Jack answered, he must of noticed her shocked face because he then said, "Don't worry everyone is shocked. I'm guessing you're Slytherin too because no Ravenclaw would have stood up to them like that."

"HEY!!" A very tall, husky - but not fat - boy exclaimed next to him, "It's true but hey!"

"This is Jerrad, he's a Ravenclaw and a friend of mine." Jack introduced Hollie and Marigold said their hellos and the four began having a conversation. 

"Okay class, settle down before I start deducting points." Snape snapped everyone to attention with his commanding voice. Now take out your books and we will begin teaching about what is expected in this class." 

"Sounds like fun…" Marigold murmured to Hollie and she opened her book to the first page. Snape began telling everyone how he doesn't take slacking off well, and that this class is one of the most useful they'll ever have. She could tell that Snape was quite proud of the class he was teaching. Hollie began flipping through her book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, to see what she was in for. It seemed like Snape was more of a talker than a doer, she hoped to god she was wrong. 

Snape began talking about some little wild animal called a Wigort, able to make a person blind temporarily. He taught them how to do a simple spell to ward them off, but they weren't allowed to use it just yet, they wouldn't be getting to see a Wigort for another week. Snape muttered something under his breath that it was because they were first years he had to go so slow. Hollie could tell that he didn't seem to like anyone much. 

Finally class was over and Hollie had two hours before her next class, so she gathered her things and prepared to leave. 

"Miss Skyelar, can you repeat the spell that I taught you today?" Snape asked her before it was time to go, the class looked at her. It was clear that she looked as though she hadn't been paying attention in class, he was trying to make her falter. This was some teacher.

"Lumos Trantum..," Hollie repeated smugly, "It shoots out a painfully bright white light that renders a Wigort helpless, but we first years will manage with just Lumos."

Snape seemed rather pleased, "Good, good. 10 points for Slytherin. Class is excused."

Hollie and Marigold began to leave, but Lee cut them off at the door. Hollie just sighed at him and crossed her arms.

"You know, you're awfully little to be sticking up for your friend here." He smiled at her with his crocked smile.

"What's your point? You get away with making fun of her…" Hollie replied and tried to push him out of the way, "Would you get out of my way."

"Word has it that you want to be on the Quidditch team." Lee began to laugh hysterically, "What makes you think they'll let you, a first year, play?"

"Because they're letting you, a first year, play." Hollie glared at him with her light blue eyes, he just glared back with his brown ones.

"But I'm different, see I'm actually good at the game." He joked, the big blond girl laughed and so did his friend Tiffany. Hollie shot the blond a look and she quickly quieted down.

"Well, we'll see won't we." Hollie rolled her eyes at him, "NOW MOVE!"

"Is there a problem here Mr. Prior?" Snape came up and stared at the two Slytherins.

"No, no problem, I was just leaving." Lee said through gritted teeth, Hollie just smiled at him.

"Good, do I need to remind you that you both are Slytherins?" Snape snapped at them with an evil scowl, "I should not have to tell you to act like it…"

Lee left with his two friends in a hurry and left Hollie standing in Snape's dungeon with a confused look. Why was he on her back all of the sudden?

"Miss Skyelar…" 

Hollie turned around and saw Snape leering at her, "You want to try out for Quidditch, do you?"

"Yes, s-sir." Her voice cracking, he looked down at the notes on his desk.

"What makes you think you're good enough?" He asked her, "It is true you didn't even know about the game until this summer isn't it?"

"Yes sir, but I know I'm a good enough Seeker…" Hollie mumbled, "I don't think, I know."

Again, another answer that Snape seemed to like, "Fine, here, go to Madame Hooch as soon as possible."

Snape walked over and handed Hollie a piece of parchment. She looked down to read it:

  


I, Professor Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin house, hereby give Miss Hollie Skyelar permission to try out for Quidditch. 

  


Severus Snape

  


Hollie looked up from the letter with a smile on her face, but Snape didn't smile back, he just leered at her like he was mad at her or something. 

"T-thank you sir!" Holly exclaimed, he walked away from her.

"Yes, well, I can't do anything about if you get in or not. We'll see how good you are." He retorted and she began to walk away, "Oh, and Miss Skyelar?"

"Yes?"

"If you do get in, you had better tell your sister to stop hiding your broom under her bed." Snape didn't look at her, but she looked at him shocked. Before she could ask how he knew about it Marigold dragged her out of the room.

"Holy Cow!" Marigold proclaimed as soon as they were out of ear shot of Snape, "I've never seen Snape take to anyone like you, he must think you're something else."

"But that could be a bad thing," Hollie muttered and looked at the letter, "I think he hopes to see me fail. Bring me down somehow."

"He didn't turn you in about your broom…" Marigold reminded, "By the way, why didn't you tell me you had a broom?" 

"I didn't want to get in trouble!" Hollie shouted, "But the teachers knew about it anyways."

"What kind is it?" Marigold asked excitedly.

"Nimbus X, " Holly answered with a smile, "Only second to the Xtreme 360."

"Wow!" Marigold sighed, "I love to watch Quidditch, but I hate to play it. When can you try out?" 

"I can now, I don't have a class for awhile…Do you think Madame Hooch is teaching?" Hollie asked as they walked back to the Slytherin's Dungeon. A Gargoyle Statue was there waiting for them.

"Password?" It asked gruffly.

"Hiccifuss!" Marigold answered and it moved out of the way so they could pass. They both sat on the green chairs and looked around. There was hardly anyone there.

"Madame Hooch doesn't start flying classes until Wednesday," Marigold answered Hollie's question, "I think she would be on the field discussing things with Cryssy."

"Really? How do I get there?" Hollie questioned, but Marigold just shrugged.

"I can show you." A tall boy with white hair told her, making Hollie jump a little bit. 

"Oh, and who are you?" Hollie asked him suspiciously.

"Jason Kreeger," He smiled at her, "I'm a Slytherin Chaser, I'm also the team captain."

"You're the team captain?" Marigold squeaked out, then leaned over to Hollie, "He is soooo cute!"

"Oh, well I have this letter from Snape…" Hollie pulled out the parchment and Jason took it from her hands to read it, "Calm down Grabby…I was gonna give it to you."

He smiled at her, "I like your attitude. I also like this letter. Madame Hooch would have only gotten me anyway, so why don't you grab a broom and we'll see if you have what it takes."

"Where would I get one?" She asked, he sighed and looked around.

"Hold on…" He then ran off up the stairs toward the guys' side of the tower. Marigold and Hollie began to talk about the white haired boy with the darker complexion while he was gone. He returned, though, within five minutes and held up two brooms. 

"Here, take this one." He threw her the smaller one of the two. She noticed the other one had "Xtreme 360" written on the side in gold lettering, "It's only a Firebolt 180, but I think it will work for tryouts don't you?"

"Sure, I guess…" Hollie muttered and began to run her hands over the worn broom. Marigold stared at it eagerly.

"Can I come watch for awhile?" She asked excitedly, "I don't have a class for an hour or so."

"Sure, come along I guess…" They all began walking out of the tower and toward the field, Jason turned his head to look at them, "I should tell you that I have Lee Prior down there waiting to practice with me, is it okay that he's around?" 

"Ugh, no." Hollie sighed, "But I'll deal with it."

"That's the spirit, we could use somebody like you on our team." Jason's voice suddenly turned angry, "Then maybe we could beat Gryffindor and that snotty Beth Morgan."

"Beth Morgan?" Hollie looked back to Marigold.

"Gryffindor Seeker, one of the best." Marigold said like she was reading from a textbook, "She may be tall, but she is extremely fast."

"Whose side are you on anyway?" Jason snapped at Marigold, who began to blush.

"Slytherin…" She said quietly, "But I know about all the players and -"

"Good, keep it Slytherin." He interrupted as they began heading outside.

"You could be nicer about it." Marigold mumbled and he turned to look at her, but he didn't say anything. They finally made it onto the field; it was a long stretch of grass with some strange looking goal posts on each side. Each side had three very tall bubble wand looking posts made of shiny gold. Hollie looked out in wonder as she saw Lee practicing hitting some bludgers away from him. Over in the corner she saw a short brown haired girl watching and taking notes. 

"This is our Quidditch field." Jason exclaimed happily and looked at Hollie, "Are you ready for some practice?"

"Sure I guess…" Hollie shrugged just as the brown haired girl ran up to them. Jason began to groan.

"Who is this?" The girl asked, glaring at Hollie, "You know first years are not allowed to play Jason, unless they have permission."

"Oh shut up Cryssy, she has permission from Snape," He handed her the note so she could look it over, "Unclench already."

"You're Hollie Skyelar?" She asked Hollie, who nodded. Suddenly upon Cryssy's face came a smile, "You're Rebeka's sister! I'm Cryssy Wasil, the commentator for all the Quidditch games."

"Nice to meet you." Hollie replied in a quiet voice.

"You know your sister might try out this year, us Gryffindor need a new chaser since Alvarez left, he was one of the best too." Cryssy sighed, "But I'm not supposed to be biased since I'm the commentator. Oh well, good luck. I hope you make it, but you still won't beat Gryffindor, not even with Lee Prior."

Cryssy walked away and sat down on the bleachers, continuing to take notes. Hollie and Jason continued to walk on the field.

"I thought Cryssy wasn't supposed to be biased…" Hollie told Jason, who laughed.

"She's just smug because Gryffindor has won the last two years," He told Hollie, "She just happened to forget that Slytherin one the six times before that."

"We sound like a good team." Hollie muttered and looked up to see Lee flying above their heads.

"Oh, we are!" Marigold replied happily. Marigold's face only seemed to light up when she was talking about Quidditch, "Gryffindor only one the last two times because of their Chaser Alverez Chase, now that he's gone, they don't stand a chance. It was weird that he only played Quidditch his last two years in school though…"

"Yeah weird…" Hollie murmured as Lee began to land. He noticed Hollie and sighed loudly. 

"I'm just going to go sit next to that Cryssy girl." Marigold whispered to Hollie and took off toward the bleachers. 

"What is SHE doing here?" Lee asked Jason, not even bothering to say hello to Hollie. 

"I'M going to try out for Quidditch," She spat out, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm practicing," Lee smiled at her, "You see, I already got in. I'm just better than you I guess."

"You are such a pompous, arrogant - (Hollie said a word that even Jason was shocked by) - and I could kick your butt at anything you do." 

"HOLLIE!" Cryssy yelled through the amplifier, "THAT'S THE STUFF! SHOW HIM WHO IS BOSS!"

Jason turned to look at her, "Aren't you going to berate her? She is a Slytherin!" He told her sarcastically, Cryssy smiled.

"NO! SHE'S DOING A GOOD JOB ON THAT SLYTHERIN WEASEL RIGHT THERE! NICE SHOW OF SOLIDARITY!"

Jason rolled his eyes and looked at the two first years with anger, "Could you two please pretend to get along. We already have enough trouble with Gryffindor without you two giving them ammunition!"

"Yeah, whatever…" Lee kicked off the ground and began to fly again, Jason just looked at Hollie and laughed.

"He's just giving you a hard time because he thinks you're pretty." Jason gave her a wink that made her think Lee wasn't the only one who thought she was pretty, "He's just being a baby."

"What year are you?" She asked him.

"Third…why?" He stared at her with confusion.

"Don't you think you're a little old to be hitting on a first year?" She smiled and straddled the broom. She then kicked off and began to fly right along with Lee.

"At least you know how to fly the thing…" Lee mumbled, "But that won't be enough you know."

"Oh dear me! Really! I just thought Quidditch was flying around doing nothing…" Holly put her hand on her head dramatically, "Woe is me! Woe is me!"

Jason laughed as he began flying too, "Okay you two. Hollie is going to be trying out for the Seeker and I have the Snitch here in my pocket. Now Lee, as the Beater you're going to have to make sure the bludgers don't hit her. It'll be good practice for both of you."

"I can do that…" Lee smiled at Hollie, who sighed. Jason pulled out the small gold ball with the small wings.

"Are you guys ready?" He asked, Hollie nodded, "Remember there are no second chances, this is all you get. GO!"

Jason let the Snitch go and just as soon as it left his hand, it was gone. Hollie began looking for it as Lee was beating all the bludgers away from her. He didn't seem like he wanted to do it though, that made her a little nervous. She squinted her eyes to see better, and then, there in the corner was the Snitch, gleaming away near one of the goalposts. She flew as fast as she could to grab it, her arms stretched as she got closer and closer…WOOSH!!! A Bludger came flying toward her head, she turned right to avoid it, and it missed her by inches. Angrily she turned around; Lee shrugged at her like it was an accident. But it was too late now, the Snitch was gone again and she went looking for it. 

"THAT'S A SAD LOOKING BUNCH YOU GOT THERE JASON!" A familiar voice rang out from the bleachers; Hollie looked over to see the girl who was yelling at the hat during the sorting. Standing next to her was her sister - carrying her broom.

"SHUT UP BETH!" Jason called back, "YOUR BUNCH IS ALWAYS SAD LOOKING!"

"Hollie!" Her sister yelled as Hollie continued looking for the snitch, "Professor Snape came up to me! Said you needed your Broom back! So I brought it! How did he know about it!?"

"I don't know!" Hollie answered as she flew around the field, "I'll grab it when I'm done!"

Finally, she saw the Snitch again; it was sitting next to Jason. This time she would get it, so she flew next to Jason - then another Bludger came barreling toward the two. Both Jason and Hollie swerved out of the way to avoid it. Jason looked back at Lee, who shrugged again.

"Sorry! That one got away!" Lee exclaimed and smiled at Hollie. Something told her he wasn't being entirely truthful. 

"LIAR!!" Rebeka, her sister, yelled suddenly, "You threw that Bludger at my sister!"

"Is that true!?" Jason asked Lee.

"No! Why are you trusting a Gryffindor for anyway?" Lee said confidently, the answer suited Jason just fine and he stopped talking about it. Hollie sighed and resumed looking for the Snitch again. She ran around the field, flying on her broom, trying to reclaim the blasted thing. Then, there it was, just inches away from her, like it was waiting for her to just grab it. She reached out for it and the two Bludgers came hurling at her, luckily she managed to wrap her hands around the Snitch. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to get out of the way of the two balls, she closed her eyes and awaited the hard impact.

"You jerk!" A voice said in front of her. She opened her eyes and saw her sister, Bludgers in her hands, flying on her broom, "You're supposed to be working as a team!"

Everyone looked up to Rebeka and gasped. Beth, who was grinning from ear to ear, ran down the field until she was underneath Rebeka.

"Did you just catch those in your hands?" Beth yelled up.

"Yeah, why?" Rebeka asked, looking downward.

"It's impossible to catch Bludgers without getting hurt! How did you do that!?" Marigold yelled from the stands.

"I don't know, I have strong hands." Rebeka shrugged and let the Bludgers go, they fell to the ground, "I used to have to catch Hollie all the time. When she was younger she used to hurl herself off of things, she thought she could fly."

Beth looked over to Jason, "You should thank your Beater there Jason ol' boy, he just helped us find our new chaser! HEY BEKA! WANT THE JOB!?"

"Sure!" Rebeka replied, though there was some hesitation in her voice, "But I need my own broom, this is Hollie's."

"WOOHOO!" Cryssy yelled happily, "I knew you would get it Rebeka!"

Hollie sighed; she guessed Cryssy and Beth were both friends of her sisters. This wouldn't exactly be a good thing if her team captain hated them both. Everyone floated down and Rebeka handed Hollie the silvery broom.

"Here you go Hollie." Rebeka smiled at her sister, "Since we're both on the Quidditch team we'll see each other more."

"I'm not on it yet," Hollie told her sister, "With Lee's wonderful help, I don't think I got on it either." 

"Don't worry about him," Rebeka put her hand on Hollie's shoulder, "He's just trying to scare you. Don't let him."

"I won't. I think you know me better than that." Hollie gave her a bright smile and Rebeka laughed.

"Yeah, you'll end up scaring him." She joked, that made Hollie laugh, "Don't worry, I'm sure you got in!"

"Bek!" Beth ran up to her with excitement on her face, "Come on! We have to go tell professor McGonagall about this at once!"

"Oh…okay." Rebeka began walking off with Beth; she gave one last look to Hollie, "Good luck sis!"

When Beth and Rebeka left, Jason walked up to Lee and looked like he was ready to punch his face in.

"Did you think that was funny!?" He yelled, "Because of you the Gryffindor team found their new Chaser…"

"I didn't do anything!" Lee yelled back, Hollie gasped.

"You aimed those Bludgers right at me!" She argued, "You didn't want me to find the Snitch, Didn't want me on the team!"

"Hey, the other team is going to be throwing balls at you," Lee told her, "If you can't find the Snitch under stressful circumstances then you shouldn't be on the team."

She looked over at Jason for some help, but he was nodding along with Lee.

"He's right, you know..."

"Fine! Then maybe I don't want to be on the team if I'm going to be playing with YOU!" Hollie then threw the gold ball down at Jason's feet, he looked up at her shocked, "Here's you danged Snitch back. I'm leaving."

Hollie ran off the field and slammed the school's door shut as she walked back to the Slytherin Dormitory. How dare he do that to her? They were supposed to be in the same house, they weren't supposed to be against each other. Hollie walked as fast as she could, but she couldn't help but hear footsteps behind her, like they were following her. She just walked faster, wanting to get to her room to beat up her pillow.

"Hollie!" Jason's voice called behind her, she ignored it, "Wait a second!"

"Don't you understand the words 'I'm leaving'?" She yelled back, not bothering to stop, "If you don't they meant that I was leaving!"

"Hollie could you just wait a second!" Jason's voice climbed closer and he somehow managed to grab her arm, making her stop in her tracks. 

"What?" She turned to look at him.

"You caught the Snitch?" He asked her, she laughed like it was the stupidest question in existence. 

"Didn't you see me throw it to you?" She answered, he smiled.

"That was incredible." He said suddenly, she wasn't excepting that, "You caught the thing in ten minutes. I didn't even see you do it."

"I caught it right before your pal Lee hit those Bludgers toward me." Hollie told, "I didn't have time to dodge and catch the Snitch, so I caught the Snitch. If my sister wouldn't have blocked them, I would have been dog food. Thanks for your concern."

"You chose to catch the snitch even though you knew you were going to get hit?" He asked her, she just nodded her head, "You're on the team."

"Excuse me?" Hollie pulled her arm out of his tight hold, "I just said I didn't want to be on the team, did you not hear me?"

"You do want to be on the team." Jason argued, "That's why you were so mad, you thought you weren't going to get on the team."

"I…..so…" Hollie mumbled, not being able to argue because he was right on the money.

"Do you want the spot or not?" He asked her, "We could use you."

"But what about Lee?" She asked, "He doesn't want me on the team and I certainly do not want to be on the team with that creep and -"

"Whoa calm down." Jason interrupted and she stopped talking, "Lee wants to win the cup just as much as we do, he'll work with you wither he likes it or not. Of course, you have to do the same."

Hollie sighed and began to smile. Even now, she was really excited about being on the Slytherin Quidditch team, "I'll do it!"

"GREAT!" Jason seemed really excited, which made Hollie even happier, "Practice starts this Thursday…see you there!"

"Okay." Hollie turned around to leave, but Jason grabbed her arm yet again.

"Oh, and by the way. I don't think I'm too old to hit on a first year," He replied with a smile, "Especially not one like you."

With that he walked off, and Holly began to blush furiously. He was good looking, but he wasn't her type really. Still, it was flattering that a third year thought she was cute. She began to walk to the Slytherin room with a little more bounce in her step, not only had she made the Quidditch team and the captain thought she was cute, she still had am hour before she had her next class. The Gargoyle statue stared at her as she approached it, it seemed happier. If a statue could be any happier.

"Password?" It asked her with a stony smile. 

"Hiccifus." She answered, staring at it.

"Congratulation Miss Skyelar about becoming Seeker." It said to her, she gasped.

"How did you know that?" 

"News Travels fast among the Art work 'round 'ere." It said and moved out of the way so she could go into the commons room. No one was there except for a few boys in the corner, one of whom she had met in class that day, a boy named Jack. She walked passed him and toward her room.

"Congrats Hollie." Jack turned to her and smiled. She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him. All she could think was that he looked really cute sitting there in that chair.

"Huh? How did you find out?" She asked him, he pointed to the Gargoyle now covering the entryway, "Just told me."

"Wow, news really does travel fast," Holly muttered, "Well, thanks."

She continued to her room to check on her owl, Talon, and tell him the exciting news. He usually was in her room on the windoe seal, seemed he didn't really like the owlery that much. She walked in her room and over to her bed in the closest corner on the right wall. Seeing Talon staring at her, she walked over and sat on her bed.

"Talon, today was the best day." Hollie exclaimed, "I'm starting to really love this school and… what's that?"

Hollie peered over and noticed something inside Talon's usually empty cage. It was a small letter, so she reached in and grabbed it. Wondering who it could be from she opened it in a hurry. It read:

  


I already told your sister, so now I will tell you. Get out of Hogwarts now. It will be too late pretty soon. Do it or one of you will get hurt…

Hollie looked around her, who could have sent it to her? She decided that as soon as she could she would go see her sister. The best time would be lunch, so she shoved the note in her pocket and ran down back to the commons…whoever it was wouldn't get away with it. 

  


_____________________________________________________________

  


A/N: Don't you wish there was a way to edit these after putting them on the site? I do... Anyway, I love the nastiness between Lee and Hollie, I always knew those two personalities would clash and it seems to work well. Kind of like Hermione and Draco, except for the faxt they are in the same house. Anyway, those two make any chapter fun to write. I only wish I could write more Slytherin chapters ^_^

Review if you want, and remember to read my other story, called "Aftershock"


	4. The Case of the Snitch

A/N: After that mess with Hollie and Rebeka, you must be going "What's going on with them!?"... well good news... this time the perspective goes too... Hufflepuff. Okay, so not so much good news. But the story unravels in every chapter because each of the characters are linked. When in Hufflepuff, the perspective goes to Vinesah, the huge Hermione wannabe (But Hermione is awesome, so we will forgive her). 

Anyway, I think that's all for this addition of A/N's rambles! Talk to you at the bottom of the page!

Chapter 4:

The Case of the Snitch

(HUFFLEPUFF)

  


Vinesah beat another Bludger out of Kirsten's way, all of them seemed to be going after her this practice. She supposed it was because Kirsten was the Seeker and they were just gearing her up for what was to come. Vinesah had tried out for the team a few days ago and already their first practice was upon them. They had only been in school for a week, she couldn't believe she had so much to do already. 

"Vinesah! Over there!" Xavier, the other Beater, called to her. She looked over to where he was pointing and saw a bludger coming straight at her. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and threw her stick up, it made contact with bludger. Sending it flying in the other direction. 

"Okay team! Practice over!" the team captian, Alex, called to everyone and they all floated down to the ground. Kirsten walked over to Vinesah and smiled and Vinesah couldn't help look at the bindi Kirsten always seemed to wear. They were the only girl's on the team, so they had been talking a lot the passed few days. She could even say that Kirsten was a friend. 

"Good job today." She told Vinesah in a strange Indian/English accent hybrid. Kirsten was from India, she had lived there for half of her life until her father and mother decided to move to England to be closer to her mother's family. Now her accents kind of blended together, creating an accent unlike any other. At first, it was kind of hard to understand her, but Vinesah was quickly getting used to it. Besides, it would help a lot when the other team didn't know what she was yelling about. 

"I about got killed by that blasted thing." Kirsten continued, looking at the bludgers now laying motionless on the floor. Alex came up to them and gave them a speech about this year's Quidditch match. Since Slytherin now had Lee Prior as a beater and the very small Hollie Skyelar - Rebeka's sister - as the seeker, there was a very good chance that Slytherin would win this year.

"Now, Kirsten, Hollie is a lot smaller than you and her broom could go faster, " Alex said with a sigh, "Maybe you should invest in a newer model."

"Yeah, like I have that kind of money." Kirsten murmured to Vinesah, who smiled

When Alex dismissed them Vinesah ran back to the Hufflepuff tower with Kirsten on her heals. Both had potions with the Gryffindor in an hour, so they needed to get cleaned up. 

"Don't you have friends in the Gryffindor house?" Kirsten asked as though she had read Vinesah's mind. Vinesah was just thinking how cool it would be for her, Rebeka and Chad to have a class together. They said they password to the guardian and ran to their dorm rooms. Kirsten's room was right next to Vinesah's, so she was fairly easy to hear.

"Yeah, Rebeka Skyelar and Chad Halwende." Vinesah yelled back as she changed into her black robe. 

"Halewend?" Kirsten laughed, "Oh, I forgot that Callimus Halwende's son came here. I thought his name was Adonis?"

"It is, he prefers Chad."

"Do you think they'll be in our class?" Kirsten walked into Vinesah's room and sat on her bed,

"What are they like?"

"Well, Rebeka's kind of jumpy and sarcastic, but don't worry you get used to it. Besides, she isn't half as bad as her sister," Vinesah smiled, "Chad…um… he's a bit of a mystery, he doesn't like to talk about himself much, but he's as loyal as they come. And he is so cute, wait until you see him."

"You know I don't date yet!" Kirsten then began to smile, "So, is he single?…I hope they're in our class, it would be more fun that way."

"Yeah, do you know who the teacher is?" 

They both walked out of the tower and to their potions class.

"Yeah, Professor Albackle, he's new here." Kirsten replied.

"Whatever happened to Professor Bartiby?" 

"She quit, couldn't handle Snape's constant nagging." Both began to laugh hysterically and about a half hour later they walked into the potions class. There were already some students in the classroom, so Vinesah began scooping them all out, hoping that one of her Gyffindor friends was one of them. Sure enough, both Rebeka and Chad were sitting in the corner talking amongst themselves. They didn't seem to notice her come in though, they looked pretty wrapped up in their conversation. 

"Wow, who is that cute guy in the corner?" Kirsten asked, Vinesah followed her gaze to see a very handsome guy with light chocolate skin, dark brown hair, and deep brown eyes. She began laughing hysterically as Kirsten looked at her confused.

"Chad! Bek!" She waved and the cute guy turned his head to wave back ,"That would be Chad."

"Oh, how do you say…um…Hubba hubba." Kirsten smiled.

"Thought you didn't date yet?" Vinesah asked her with sarcasm, Kirsten began to laugh.

"Eh, I can look." She replied as they walked over to Vinesah's friends and sat down.

"Hey Vinesah! We actually have a class together this year!" Rebeka laughed, "Who's your friend?"

"Kirsten Laskey." Vinesah noticed a confused look on Rebeka's face, "Her mom is a Brit, Bek."

"Ooh…Sorry." Rebeka gasped, "I mean, not Sorry that you're moms a Brit, but…oh nevermind."

"Hi," Kirsten said to Rebeka, but she was looking at Chad. He noticed and gave her one of his trademark charming smiles.

"I'm Chad." He introduced and shook her hand.

"Adonis…" Rebeka corrected, "His name is Adonis, but he makes us all call him Chad."

"I know who you are." Kirsten told him with a slight smile.

"You've heard of him too?" Rebeka sighed and looked over to Chad with a hurt expression, "Sometimes I wish I didn't live in America…or thought I was a muggle! I'm always left in the dark…of course it's not like Chad's telling me anything."

"My family have always been magic users," Kirsten told them, "I've heard of all the important ones, and Callimus Halwende is important."

"Why is he so important?" Rebeka asked Chad, Vinesah gasped and smacked him on the head.

"You've known her a year and you still haven't told her?" Vinesah scolded, "What kind of mystery freak are you?"

"The subject never came up. She knows he's a physic." Chad shrugged, Vinesah noticed Rebeka role her eyes. She could tell that Chad wasn't telling the whole truth, but before she could say anything Professor Albackle barged in like he was a late student.

"Sorry for my tardiness." The thin man began with an Australian accent, "That Professor Snape kept giving me advice on Paralysis potions."

Vinesah looked at him; he was a skinny man with small glasses and a rugged face. His sandy blonde hair all in disarray and he had a five o'clock shadow on his face. Defiantly not the somewhat professional teacher that Vinesah was used too.

"Well, I think we should get right to it…" He mumbled, "I'll be splitting you up in teams of two."

He went down the line and began pairing people off. The way he was pairing them, Vinesah figured she would be with Kirsten or Rebeka…

"Hmmm…Vinesah Kinsley…we'll put you with…Chad Halwende," Albackle said, Vinesah sighed, "Rebeka Skyelar, You're with Kirsten Laskey. Okay, that's everybody. Begin making a transmorphing potion, the ingredients are on the table the recipe is on page 34. Good luck."

Chad walked over to Vinesah and sat down next to her, she looked at him and smiled.

"Hello." She said, he laughed.

"Hello…" He answered. He then went and got the ingredients, then sat back down. Vinesah notice him glance at Rebeka every once and awhile. She laughed.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." She told him, he looked at her confused.

"Excuse me?"

"You've been looking at Rebeka this whole time." Vinesah told him as she slowly added Willow Root to the brew, "I'm so jealous! You like her or something?"

"You're funny. But no, nothing like that." He mumbled, "It's nothing really."

"I don't think so…" Vinesah sighed, "Being all secretive may fly with Rebeka, but it certainly don't fly with me…doesn't fly with me. If you don't tell her about your father, there is no reason why I shouldn't. "

"Again, excuse me?" Chad gave her a sideways glance, "Add the rat tail."

The potion began to bubble and turn yellow, "You're dad isn't just a physic. He can read minds and perform things that no man or wizard should be able to do. Come on Chad, there are people who've never met you that know more about you than Rebeka does…What's with all the secrecy?"

Chad sighed and glanced at her, "I don't want her to know. I like someone not knowing about the famous Callimus Halwende. Everyone knows about him, everyone knows about ME and I hate every minute of it. I like that she like's me for me, not because I'm Callimus Halwende's son. Is that so wrong?"

"Well, at least you're not being over dramatic about it, " She laughed as she poured the Banshee Brew, "But I think it's a bad idea..." 

He ignored her and looked at the caldron, "Is it supposed to be this color?" Chad asked staring at the reddish liquid below them. Vinesah shrugged.

"Maybe, I hardly ever mess up on Potions though, so it probably is." She replied, noticing Chad look behind him, "What are you looking at?"

"Why does your friend keep looking at me?" Chad asked, "It's kind of creepy."

"You got me." Vinesah lied, she knew that Kirsten thought Chad was pretty cute. Of course, it was hard not to stare at him; Vinesah had a time trying to keep herself from doing it.

"Hey did you guys finish?" Rebeka asked them both, Vinesah smiled widely and showed her the potion they had just made, "Good! It's supposed to look like gross like that."

"We thought we messed up," Kirsten told them, "Thought we made some kind of blood or something."

"Nah, you have it." Chad smiled, "Just hope it doesn't taste like blood."

When the class was over, Professor Albackle had a few of the students try their potions. All of them turned into cats - which was what the potion was for. When Greenly Balst turn came though, she turned into a dog, getting points marked off the Hufflepuff house. Albackle was a good teacher, but he loved to take points away from anything. Sometimes he could be worse than Snape. Class was dismissed and everyone ran out and into the main hall, talking and laughing. Suddenly though, Rebeka pulled Vinesah off to the side, telling the others to wait for them.

"What's up?" Vinesah asked, wordlessly Rebeka handed her a note. It was telling her to leave school before she got hurt! She read it and looked up shocked, "What does this mean?"

"I don't know!" Rebeka exclaimed, "I don't know anything about my family history, I was hoping you would."

"No, I don't." Vinesah sighed, "But I know where to look, let me see the note and I'll get you some information from the library. Okay?"

"Okay." Rebeka looked over Vinesah's shoulder at Chad and Kirsten, she laughed, "Chad looks really uncomfortable."

"Chad is uncomfortable about any human beings." Vinesah smiled and turned her head, "Learning how to deal with woman will do him some good."

"It's amazing what a doofus he is around girls." Rebeka said as they walked back to Kirsten and Chad, "It's amazing what a doofus you are around girls."

"What?" Chad blinked at her with a confused look on his face, but from his eyes it was clear that he knew what she meant. Since they could remember Chad was always weird around girls, except for them. He would get uncomfortable and snippy and try to leave. They had tried to break him out of it with Beth - whom he has a giant crush on - but it didn't work very well. He only ended up accidentally paralyzing Vinesah. 

"What…don't act stupid mister." Rebeka continued, "I know you better than that."

"Yeah, well. I'm going back to the Gryffindor Tower…I have to get my book for my next class." He began to leave but Rebeka grabbed his collar.

"I'm going with you, I hate walking these halls alone. Who knows what Peeves might do!"

"O-okay. Whatever." Chad rolled his eyes as the two began to walk away.

"Hey Vinesah?" Rebeka called back, "Thanks for doing that for me!"

"No Problem! I'll talk to you later!" Vinesah called after them and they disappeared up one of the staircases. Both Kirsten and Vinesah headed back to the Hufflepuff tower in silence, not really knowing what to say. 

"You like him…" Vinesah murmured, Kirsten began to blush.

"So? I'm much too young to date, I'm not gonna do anything about it." She replied quickly trying to keep up the image of being cool. 

"Don't you think he's a little strange?" Vinesah asked as they saw tower in front of them, "I think he's a little strange. He's too secretive for me."

"It's a mystery!" Kirsten explained, "He's a mystery…"

"Yeah, I know I've known him a year and everything, but," Vinesah sighed, not really wanting to admit to what she was about to say, "There is something about him I don't trust."

Kirsten looked over to her with shock, "Really? What?"

"I don't know. Just the way he acts around Rebeka is off sometimes." Vinesah shrugged.

"You don't think he likes her do you?" Kirsten seemed disappointed at the prospect.

"No, it's just…" Vinesah let out another sigh, "Most of the time we're all good and talking and laughing, then, SNAP, just like that he'll become cold and distant. Especially when it comes to Rebeka, like sometimes he acts like he doesn't want to be anywhere around her. She pretends not to notice, but it's starting to wear down on her."

"That's weird." Kristen's eyes began to glitter, "I wonder what he's hiding!?"

"You're strange Kirsten." Vinesah laughed.

"Seriously Vinesah, we should figure it out!" Kirsten smiled and gave the password to the big statue of Cedric Diggory, a Hufflepuff who died during the Triwizard tournament. The statue quickly moved out of the way and they stepped inside the yellow room.

"Well, it could be fun, but I don't think it's right to go sneaking around my friends past." Vinesah laughed, "So I'm gonna have to pass."

"Okay, your loss Nesah!" Kirsten sat down in one of the big chairs just as a strawberry blonde with wild curly hair stepped into the room. She was talking to a light blond with light eyes, both were giggling furiously. 

"Kristina! What's up?" Vinesah yelled over to the strawberry blonde. Kristina Bellowood was another second year and shared a room with Vinesah. Kristina gave Vinesah her trademark toothy grin. 

"Haven't you seen it yet?" Kristina asked, "Melissa was showing it to me. I found it interesting."

"What's interesting?" Kirsten asked her, giving her a suspicious glare.

"Radcliffe is holding a dance." Melissa told them shyly, "On September 27th."

"Huh?" Vinesah asked confused, Kristina walked over and handed Vinesah a flyer. It was sparkling with millions of stars and showed people laughing and having fun, " The Starry Night Ball? 'A Welcome to all Hogwarts students with a new tradition, a dance. Dress Robes required, feel free to bring a date.' What is this?"

"They want to see if it will work," Kristina shrugged, "I think it's cool. We're even allowed to bring date's outside of our houses."

"Really," Kirsten's eyes twinkled with ideas, "There are so many cute Ravenclaw's I could take. And we can't forget that yummy second year Gryffindor."

Kristina smiled widely, "Chad Halwende? He is yummy. He's defiantly on my list."

"Don't you think he would take that girl he's always with?" Melissa asked them both, "Rebeka or something?"

"Him and Rebeka are only friends, but I would think he would want to take Beth Morgan." Vinesah began speaking in a monotone voice, like she was drifting off into space or something.

"Beth Morgan? Captain of the Gryffindor team?" Kristina asked, Vinesah nodded, "Figures. She's blond and beautiful."

"Isn't she taken?" Melissa said quietly, "Tom something from Ravenclaw, aren't they dating?"

"Oh Yeah! Forgot about that!" Vinesah exclaimed, "Well, girls, you may just have a chance."

"Well, maybe you could ask him who he has an idea to take." Kristina calmly said, "Then slip my name passed him."

"I'll do my best." Vinesah laughed as Melissa and Kristina took off, giggling once again, "Some people."

"Well, who would you take?" Kirsten murmured, "You can't tell me that you wouldn't want to go with him?"

"Okay…I would, but I'm not going to. I'll leave him for you." Vinesah sighed, "I think I may go alone."

"ALONE!?" Kirsten acted as though Vinesah said she was going to murder someone, "You cannot go alone."

"Why not?" Vinesah grumbled.

"Because…well…just cuz!" Kirsten crossed her arms, "There isn't anyone who you wouldn't want to go with?"

"I don't know…" Actually Vinesah was thinking of someone, but she wasn't about to tell Kirsten. No one needed to know that she was willing to go with him. 

"Hey, Vinesah and Kirsten!? Are you in here!?" A male voice said as a guy came through the doorway. It was Alex Guttiara, the team captain of the Hufflepuff team. He was more cleaned up now that Quidditch practice was over. His brown hair was in a stylish wave and his brown eyes were staring at them both intensely. When he was cleaned up, Alex was extremely handsome. Of course, he was a fourth year, so he was way out of Vinesah's league. She looked down as she noticed herself blushing a little bit when he walked in the room.

"We're here, what do you want?" Kirsten asked, turning her attention toward Alex. He gave her a panicked look.

"You guys haven't seen the snitch have you?" Alex asked, he was talking about that little gold ball used in Quidditch. 

"Why did it get away?" Vinesah asked him quietly.

"No, we had it back in the box and then it was gone." Alex explained, "We were hoping it just ran off to a player. Do you guys have it?"

"No, I haven't seen it since practice." Kirsten shrugged.

"Damn. I was afraid of that." Alex slumped against the wall, sighing in defeat, "I caught up with everyone and no one has seen the blasted thing."

"Do you want us to help look for it?" Vinesah asked, standing up. Kirsten looked at her.

"I don't want to help!" She muttered through gritted teeth so only Vinesah could hear.

"Too bad." Vinesah muttered back then smiled at Alex, who was smiling at her.

"Really? You guys would help?" He asked, "I tried asking the other players but they all said they had to do homework or something."

"Yeah, it's no problem, I'm done with classes and so is Kirsten." Vinesah kicked Kirsten in the foot, which made her yelp and stand up.

"What, have you memorized my schedule?" Kirsten hissed at Vinesah, then turned to Alex with a phony smile plastered on her face, "Sure we can help. Anything for you Alex."

Alex gave her a strange look, "O…kay. You guys search around the Hufflepuff area, I'm gonna go look in the library."

"You sure you don't need any help?" Vinesah asked in a tiny voice, "I mean, I could come with you. I know the library really well, I'm there all the time."

Kirsten gave her an evil look. And pretended to start looking for the snitch, all the while giving Vinesah looks that could kill.

"Yeah, sure. Come along with me." Alex looked over toward Kirsten, "Will you be okay by yourself?"

"Yeah, yeah, you two go." Kirsten looked at Vinesah, "I deal with you later."

Vinesah gulped and her and Alex took off toward the library. Vinesah didn't really know what to say, she had never been alone with Alex before. She didn't even know too much about him, just that he really like Quidditch. 

"So what do you think of our team this year?" Vinesah asked, grasping at anything to make conversation. It worked though; Alex began smiling widely and looked down to her.

"I think we may have a shot this year. Our team is really good." He exclaimed, "We haven't been this good since Cedric Diggory was on the team…bless his soul."

"You know about Cedric?" She asked, he nodded furiously.

"He's the reason I wanted to be in the Hufflepuff house! When I found out I had gotten excepted to Hogwarts…and then to be a Hufflepuff!" He laughed, "It was a dream come true. I just hope I can follow in his footsteps. He would have been huge."

"Yeah, he would have." Vinesah mumbled, then smiled, "So are you… um… Muggle born?"

"No, My family have been great magic users." Alex sighed and began looking sad, "They just didn't know if me or my brother would have the powers they did. You see, we didn't show any sign of magic until much later than normal. And it was only few and far between, so they didn't know…but then they got the letter."

"That's good for you then." Vinesah smiled up and he looked at her, giving her a smile right back. When they finally got to the library, the librarian - Madame Greony - looked out the top of her glasses and glared at them. They began searching silently through the rows of book, hoping that they would find the Snitch hiding between one of them, but after what seemed like hours, they found nothing. Alex sat at one of the tables in defeat, Vinesah quickly followed suit. 

"I don't understand, how can a Snitch just disappear right in front of our eyes." Alex muttered, "McGonagall is going to kill me. I can hear her now '50 points from Hufflepuff for being so irresponsible.' I should have watch it more closely."

"Don't worry about it." Vinesah tried to comfort, "I'm sure the Snitch still thinks it's in the game and it's just hiding, waiting for the right opportunity to pop out and say hello."

Alex began to laugh hysterically, "You're a pretty funny girl Vinesah. How come we don't hang out more?"

"I don't know…Maybe -"

"Are you two going to look at books or are you in here just to play around?" Greony stared at them from behind her cherry desk. Alex quickly stood up.

"No ma'am, we were just looking for something." He told her, but Greony just seemed to get even angrier.

"If it isn't a book, then I suggest you leave before I deduct points from Hufflepuff myself." She told him stubbornly, he gave her a face when she wasn't looking.

"Come on Vinesah, I guess that's our cue to leave." Alex told her and Vinesah stood up.

Both walked out the library in silence then walked back to the Hufflepuff tower, where Kirsten would surely be there, waiting to yell at Vinesah. When they walked into the Hufflepuff tower, her doubts were confirmed, Kirsten saw them and gave them an icy glare.

"Do you know how many people thought it was funny that me, a seeker, was looking for the snitch INSIDE!" She yelled, "They all thought I was crazy! One of the 7th years actually told me to quit Quidditch because I was becoming obsessed with the game!"

Vinesah began to chuckle, "I guess it is a little funny." 

Kirsten glared at her, which made her stop laughing and look down. Kirsten then began ranting in her native language, and from the sound of it she wasn't talking about butterflies or anything nice like that.

"Sorry about that Kirsten." Alex apologized sheepishly, "Guess we should have stayed here and told everyone you weren't the crazy one."

"Yeah, I'm not the crazy one, you two are…" She sighed, "Making me look for some escapee snitch, honestly!"

"Hey, we kind of need that back in order to play the game!" Alex yelled at her, making her roll her eyes.

"Yeah, well…I didn't find anything that even resembled the snitch. Maybe somebody ran of with it." She looked over at Alex.

"Impossible! We only had our eyes off of it for a second!" He explained, "Nobody is that fast."

"They could have apparated." Kirsten shrugged, "That's pretty fast, my mum and dad do it all the time."

"You can't Apparate on the Hogwarts grounds!" Vinesah exclaimed, "There's an enchantment on it! You should know that!"

"No, only you know that." Kirsten looked over to Vinesah, "You're weird like that."

Vinesah blushed a bit and sighed, "Well, I bet Peeves took it as some sort of joke. He's always doing stuff like this."

"But he's never stolen anything before," Alex sighed, "Not anything important anyway!"

"I think Vinesah's right. Once he gets bored with it it'll probably end up on a Statues head or something." Kirsten looked down at her watch, "All this searching has made me hungry and Dinner is about to start, wanna head on down?"

"Yeah, I guess," Vinesah looked over to Alex, "Are you coming?" 

"I don't know…" Alex began looking around like the snitch would suddenly appear before him.

"Don't worry, it'll show up…come and eat with us." Kirsten gave him a playful tape on the back.

"Okay, but after dinner I'm going right back to looking for it again." Alex told them and they all began to walk out the tower - until the heard a scream that is, that made them stop in their tracks. Everyone in the commons room turned to look in the direction that it came from. A dark blond came running into the commons from the girls dormitory - as white as a sheet.

"Cassie!" Kirsten exclaimed and ran into the crowd that was now gathering around the scared girl. Vinesah and Alex looked at each other and quickly followed, making their way to Kirsten.

"It was terrible!" Cassie yelled frantically. Everyone began to murmur around her, "Just terrible."

"What happened?" Kirsten asked, Cassie shrugged.

"I don't know!" She shined, "I was just sitting in my room and no one was around and all of the sudden someone came through the wall."

"One of the ghosts?" Kirsten smiled, "Shouldn't you be used to them by now? You are a third year!"

"I know that!" Cassie snapped, "But it wasn't any of the ghosts here! This was something new…a boy…about 17 or 18 with brown hair."

"Are you sure it wasn't Nearly Headless Nick or The Bloody Baron?" Vinesah asked.

"Or Moaning Murtle, she can look like a guy sometimes." A boy, Justice Albadore - the Hufflepuff clown, joked. His friends laughed.

"It wasn't any of them! I even made sure it wasn't Peeves playing a horrible joke on me!" Cassie began to tremble, "He was just standing there then all of the sudden he got really angry and started throwing things around the room! I almost got hit by my books!"

"Are you okay?" Alex asked her, Cassie nodded.

"I thought the ghost's around here were supposed to be nice!!" She whined and sat down on one of the yellow over stuffed chairs.

"Well, they're supposed to be." Kirsten murmured, "Maybe you were dreaming…"

"No I wasn't!!" Cassie yelled and sighed, "I don't know, but it scared the crap out of me!"

"Hey, come down with us and grab some dinner…" Kirsten said in a soft voice, "It'll take your mind off of it." 

Cassie nodded and stood up. The group walked to the great hall and sat down at the Hufflepuff table. Kirsten was busy trying to take Cassie's mind off of her rather scary episode, so Vinesah was staring at the ceiling above, the stars twinkling over head. She smiled slightly and looked over to the Gryffindor table seeing Rebeka and Chad laughing and joking around. He was pretending to spill Ketchup on her, making her smack him in the head. A boy with black hair and a toothy grin, Tony Prior, was laughing hysterically at their antics. Vinesah caught Rebeka's eye, who waved wildly as Chad pretend to squirt mustard on her. That reminded of the research she would do for Rebeka about her family. She reminded herself to go later tonight, before it was time for bed. 

She then looked over at the Slytherin table, where she noticed Hollie having a nice conversation with a white haired boy and a gothic looking girl. She kept glancing at Tony's double, Lee Prior, and giving him evil looks. He just kept staring at her like she was worst thing at the table. It made Vinesah wonder about the story between them. She did a small glance to the Ravenclaw table, but she barely knew anyone from there so she paid it no nevermind. The only people she noticed were Nick - a second year - and Jeff - a first year - Talliwind whom she had met on the train on the way here. She sighed and looked back up at the starry sky and took a bit of her meat, chomping on it gingerly. 

"What are you thinking about?" Alex asked her, snapping her out of her daze and making her jump a bit, "You seem out of it."

"Oh, sorry, I was just looking at the other table's." She answered, "A lot of my friends are from different houses. I miss them sometimes."

"Oh, my best friend is a Ravenclaw, his name's Billy. He's really cool." Alex shrugged and took a swig of his pumpkin juice, "You should meet him sometime."

"Yeah, I'll have to do that." Vinesah smiled at him.

"You know, you're a really good beater." He complimented; she blushed a little bit.

"Excuse me?" 

"You're a really good beater," He repeated, "I've seen many and you're one of the better ones. If you really wanted to, you could go pro."

"You think so?" She asked, he nodded, "I've never really thought about it."

"Oh, maybe you should." Alex said quickly then returned to eating. Vinesah spent the rest of dinner half heartedly talking to everyone as she thought about a career in Quidditch. 

When it was time to go back, Vinesah instead headed for the library, separating from everyone else. When she got there it was quiet and dark, Madame Greony seemed to have left, so Vinesah had the entire place to herself. The first place she looked was the Wizards sections and saw many books about wizarding family. She grabbed as many as she could and went to a table. She looked through book after book but couldn't find anything about the Skyelars anywhere. So instead she gave up for the day and picked up one of her favorite books Wizarding Legend and Lore. She flipped through the pages until she came to a rather famous poem called "The Duel." She didn't know why but for some reason she felt compelled to read it. It was an interesting read, about two wizarding family's who fought, one eventually losing and went to live... as muggles. Vinesah found that rather interesting. The peom itself said it was a true story, but she had to wonder how true. From then on she decided to shift her focus from the Skyelars to the background story of the poem.... maybe they had a lot in common. 

Clink.The sound of something small falling on the floor made her jump out of her skin. She turned around and saw nothing. It was strange but she went back to reading. Then, Clink.The sound scared her again and she turned around. There was something there, making goosebumps form on her arm.

"Hello?" She called into the lightly lit room. When she didn't hear anything in response she stood up and began looking behind the bookshelves. After about 10 minutes of doing that she felt pretty dumb and she went back to her table…when she saw a ghostly figure standing next to it.

She yelped and jumped back. A boy with brown hair and a handsome face stared at her with a solemn look. When he saw her, he smiled. 

"I think you're looking for something." He told her and held out his transparent hand. Sitting in it was the missing snitch. She looked at it, then back at him.

"Who are you?" She asked, "And why do you have the Snitch?"

"I came here to see you win." He told her, "You will win right?"

"Win? I…don't know." She answered with a soft voice, he smiled at her.

"I better give this back now…but I have to warn you!" His eyes became wide with fury, "I need to tell you something!"

"What do you need to say?" She walked toward him a little bit. He began to get frustrated and then there was a large white light. She screamed as books began flying everywhere, she ducked under the table, "What are you doing!?"

"I have to warn you!" He yelled over the loud wind he was creating. She closed her eyes.

"Warn me about what!?" She cried, hoping he would hear her and that she wouldn't get hit with one of those extremely heavy books. 

"I can't stay long!" He yelled in anger, "But I have to warn you about -"

Suddenly it was all over. The books fell from where they flew and the wind died down and the eerie silence overwhelmed the room once again. She opened her eyes and saw that the ghost was gone, so she climbed out from underneath the table. The book she was reading was long gone, in the pile of books on the floor. She sighed; she would have to remember to check it out later. She was about to leave when she noticed the golden Snitch glistening lifeless on the ground at her feet. She smiled and picked it up, then got out of there as fast as she could. She was so scared she almost forgot to remind herself to tell Rebeka the story about The Duel. Of course, she had a much more interesting story to tell herself…

  


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A/N: A ghost! A new ghost!! And a ball! Ohh, so much drama in so little time. And what does that poem say that has Vinesah so interested? Guess you'll have to read on!

As always, tanks for reading, review if you want too!

  



	5. First of the Season

A/N: Quidditch anyone? That's what this chapter is pretty much about. It's a great sport, if it were real I would be a fan. Anyway, that honestly all I have to say at the moment ^_^

  


ONWARD TO THE STORY!!!

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Chapter 5:

First of the Season

(SLYTHERIN)

  


Hollie walked down to the Quidditch field and looked out at it longingly. The first match was coming up tomorrow and she was very excited, not to mention nervous. The Slytherin team had been practicing for weeks and she felt like she was ready…well, somewhat. She was extremely nervous still, but not because of the Quidditch match. The note she had gotten two weeks ago still haunted her memory. She had told Rebeka about it, who then took it to Vinesah, who was researching to see what she could find. Vinesah wasn't talking though, she said she wasn't going to tell them anything until the Starry Night Ball. Hollie didn't know why she would want to wait that long, but to her Vinesah always was a little strange.

Hollie sighed and sat on one of the benches, just staring at the field, debating if she should practice. They were playing Ravenclaw tomorrow, Hollie had never seen them practice but she heard they actually had a chance this year. Of course, according to everyone they all had a chance, the teams were pretty well balanced, and it would be hard to decide who would win just by the first couple of games. Of course, Gryffindor had the lead in debates, since they had won for the last two years, but Slytherin had one the last six before that, as Jason reminded them often. She hoped they could win, or at least she could catch the Snitch more often than not. Jason was impressed with her, but Lee really wasn't. He seemed to hate her.

"What are doing out here?" A voice called to her shrilly, "Don't you have a class or something?"

She looked up to see the cold eyes of Lee Prior, "No, don't you have somewhere else to be?"

"I wanted to watch the Ravenclaw practice," Lee sat a few benches below her, "What's your excuse?"

"I can be wherever I want to," She replied, her heart leaped. She didn't know that Ravenclaw was going to practice, she came at the right time.

"You can be where I'm not." Lee rolled his eyes, "You're lucky you even got on the team."

"I got on the team because of skill," She argued, "You got on the team because your last name is Prior. That sounds more like luck to me."

"Hollie!" A deep voice called excitedly to her, she looked away from Lee. Waving to her was the very tall Jerrad, a Ravenclaw she had Defense Against the Dark Arts with. She waved to him excitedly and he ran up to her, "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked him, "You're on the Quidditch team?"

"They said they could use a tall guy to be the Keeper," Jerrad smiled, "So they got me!"

"They got him cuz he can cover up most of the goal." A voice behind him laughed. Jack stepped out from behind his friend and sat down next to Hollie, she blushed a little bit, "Better watch out for her though Jerrad, she's the seeker for our side."

"I know, I've heard." Jerrad shrugged, "I guess they didn't care about that whole first years shouldn't play thing."

"Well, that because there are a bunch of talented first years." Jack said, looking directly at Hollie.

"Well, Hollie I guess you get to see the competition. We're fierce man!" Jerrad yelled and went back down to gather with his teammates. The team captain started spouting off something to them and they took off into the air to practice. Hollie noticed Lee watching intensely, like he was taking mental notes. 

"You heard about the Starry Night Ball?" Jack suddenly asked her, she pulled her gaze from Lee and stared at him. 

"Yeah, I have, why?" She asked in a quiet voice. Was he going to ask her?

"I was just wondering." He replied, she slumped in defeat, "Have you got a date yet?"

Hollie noticed Lee turn his head to hear their conversation, "No, I haven't. It's only two weeks away and no one has asked me."

"That seems hard to believe," Jack began shuffling his feet and looking away from her, "I mean…look at you."

"Oh…thanks." Hollie blushed and looked up toward the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. 

"What about you Prior?" Jack asked Lee, noticing he was paying attention to their conversation, "Have you got a date yet?"

Lee, who had no problem with Jack, turned and smiled, "I've been too busy trying to get my brother a date. He wants to go with my friend Tifnee."

Tifnee. Her name was Tifnee, not Tiffany, Holly thought. What a strange name.

"Well, how's that coming?" Jack asked, Lee laughed.

"Tony's too nervous to ask anyone, so whenever I get them together he yelps and runs away." He laughed at the prospect, Jack chuckled. And Hollie let out a sigh.

"Know who you want to go with yet?" Jack asked again, Lee shook his head.

"Nah, not really. I'll just have to see who wants to have the honor of going with me." Lee beamed and Hollie scoffed.

"Right, the HONOR. That's what it'll be, a great big honor." Hollie told him sarcastically. Lee just glared at her and turned back to look at the Quidditch practice going on above their heads. Hollie began watching the players and noticed that Jerrad was a really good Keeper, no balls that she saw ever got passed him. He was going to be a hard one for their chasers to get by. She reminded herself to tell Jason that because she was sure that Lee was just watching for his own gain and wouldn't be paying attention to that sort of thing. When the Ravenclaw came down for the last speech from their captain, Hollie decided she had better leave before Lee could throw more insults at her. She stood up and descended the stairs to get to the field. 

"Hey Hollie!" Jack yelled from where she once was. She turned around.

"Huh? Did I forget something?" She asked him innocently, he thought it was hilarious and began to laugh, "What is so funny!?"

"No, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the ball with me!?" He yelled to her, she blushed as she noticed everyone turn to look at them. They all remained silent as they waited for her answer, "Come on Hollie, don't embarrass me in front of all these people!"

"I…OKAY!" She yelled back excitedly, "I would love too!"

"Yeah! SHE SAID YES!" Jerrad exclaimed playfully and the Ravenclaw began to clap for them. Hollie blushed an even brighter red but began to bow and curtsy.

"Sweet." She heard Lee mutter under his breath. She glared at him.

"Okay, see you then!!" Jack waved to her and she took off toward the school once again. She was so excited, not only did she have a date, she had a date with the cutest boy in Slytherin. Well, that is next to Jason, she probably would have said yes to him too if he would have asked, but she had never heard him even hint to it. Still, it was pretty exciting to know she had a date. She had to wonder where her sister was so she could tell her. Just as she thought that she saw one of her sister's friends, Beth, turn the corner into the hallway she was walking in. Hollie ran up to her quickly.

"Hi! You don't know me very well, I'm Hollie Skyelar, Rebeka's sister…" She began, Beth shot her a look.

"Yes, you're also the new seeker for Slytherin." Beth's voice remained cold and flat, "What do you want?"

"Um, I was wondering if you knew where my sister was?" Hollie's eyes gleamed with excitement, "I have to tell her something."

"Oh, I saw her walking into the great Hall with Chad." Beth answered, "She should still be there."

"Oh, okay. THANKS!" Hollie ran off and toward the Great Hall, hoping to catch Rebeka before she took off somewhere else. When she got there she noticed her, Chad, Tony, and Cryssy sitting in there, not really doing anything. Hollie ran over and began to catch her breath.

"BECKI!" Hollie yelled so that all of them turned to look at her, Rebeka began to smile widely, "I found you!"

"Hollie! What did you run here?" Rebeka asked, standing up and walking over to her sister.

"All the way from the Quidditch field!" Hollie panted excitedly, "I… got… asked… to… to… the ball!"

"Really!?" Rebeka squealed in delight and directed Hollie over to the table where her friends were sitting, "By who?"

"Jack Grabble, he's this really cute Slytherin, but he doesn't act like a Slytherin." Hollie smiled and sat down, Chad looked over to her.

"Well, that's too bad, I was going to ask you to go with me," He gave her a wink and smiled.

"No you weren't." Rebeka snapped at him, she then looked at Tony, "You weren't either…So how old is this Jack?"

"He's my age." Hollie told her, Rebeka nodded her head slowly. Rebeka was really protective of her; Hollie had gotten used to it by now.

"Do I get to meet him?" Rebeka asked again, Hollie nodded.

"Oh sure, I'll introduce to tomorrow at the Quidditch game." Hollie's answer made Rebeka smile, so Hollie figured that Rebeka would leave it alone, "Who are you going with?"

"Who are you talking too?" Cryssy asked, Holly smiled.

"All of yall." She answered, "Well, except you Tony, I already know who you want to go with."

Tony blushed furiously and looked down at his shoes.

"I'm going with no one." Cryssy said happily, "I'm helping with coordination, so I can't have a date and help set it up. I'm just going to be with the teachers."

"Oh, that sounds…fun." Holly murmured, trying to not sound like Cryssy's idea of a good time was really, really boring, "Bek?"

"I don't have a date yet." Rebeka replied, almost like she was embarrassed, "No one's asked me."

"Nuh-uh! No way!" Hollie exclaimed, "My sister is not going to the ball without a date! I can set you up with a friend of Jack's. His name is Jerrad, he's cool but he's a bit doofy…"

"No, no!" Rebeka said quickly, "There's still two weeks, I'm not desperate to find a date yet! Try me about 3 days before, then I will be panicking."

"You'll have a date soon, I'm sure…you're…not…ugly…" Hollie told her, Rebeka began to laugh.

"Thanks." She rolled her eyes, "I'm glad you had to struggle to say that."

"Well, Chad what about you?" Hollie asked him, "You defiantly have a date don't you?"

"Nope." He replied flatly.

"What? Really?" Hollie exclaimed, shocked.

"That's only because he's turned down all the girl's who have asked him!" Rebeka told her, "He's holding out for Beth."

Hollie looked toward him with a confused expression, "So why don't you ask her?"

"Because…" Chad muttered under his breath.

"Because he's a big chicken wuss and because she's going with her Boyfriend Tom." Rebeka gave him a michevious smile, making him glared at her.

"Then ask somebody." Hollie smiled, "Hey! Take my sister!"

"No, that's okay." Chad smiled, Rebeka rolled her eyes.

"Man, my self esteem is getting such a boost today." She replied and looked down at her watch, "Hey, I have to go to my next class, I'll see you guys later."

Rebeka took off quickly, leaving Hollie alone with all of her friends. Awkwardness began to spread throughout the giant room. 

"You know my sister's birthday is coming up." Hollie told them all, "I didn't know if you guys knew, but it's the 25th, she doesn't like to talk about it much, but get her a happy birthday at least."

"She never told us." Cryssy shrugged, "Last year she hid all of her presents under the bed, when I found them she said it was because her parents were impressed that she was doing so well."

"She hates birthday's." Hollie told her and stood up, "To her it's just getting older, and there is nothing to celebrate about that, but she'll feel special if you say something."

"Kay…" Cryssy gave her a quizzical look, "Whatever you say."

"Well, I gotta go, I have a match tomorrow!" Hollie smiled and stood up, she noticed Tony perk up a little bit.

"Good luck!" He yelled to her and gave her a thumbs up, she smiled and took off toward the Slytherin dungeon, maybe she could catch Jason and tell him about Jerrad being such a good Keeper. When she got to the Gargoyle she yelled the password and stepped inside. She didn't have anymore classes so she just decided to sit by the fire and wait for Jason to come in. She had no idea where he would be, but she hoped he would come soon. The fire seemed to warm her chilled bones rather quickly and she looked around to see of she could find someone who she knew. She saw Marigold sitting in the corner watching two boys play Wizard Chess. Wizard Chess was played just like Muggle chess but the pieces were actually "alive" in a way and you told them were to go. It was a hard game to play and Hollie never liked playing it, but it was funny when the Chess pieces argued with the person who was playing. She once saw a chess piece get up and walk out because they player didn't know what he was doing, three 7th years had to chase it down.

"Marigold!" Hollie called over to the gothic looking girl. 

Marigold looked over to Hollie, then ran up to her. By the look on her face, no one would know that Marigold was happy, but Hollie was beginning to learn Marigold's slight expressions that showed her current emotion.

"I got asked to the ball!" Marigold proclaimed somewhat flatly. Hollie gave her a sideways glance.

"By who?"

"Timothy Mcgraffy, he's even a fourth year!" She sat down next to Hollie beaming, well beaming for Marigold.

"That guy who always wears the spiked collar?" Hollie asked her, Marigold nodded, "Oh, Cool…Well, I got asked too!"

"Awesome, by who?"

"Jack Grabble." Hollie answered with pride, after all, the guy was really cute.

"Oh, the guy from our defenses class?" Marigold sighed loudly and pointed her eyes toward the ceiling, "He is so cute!"

"I know! He asked me as I was leaving the Quidditch field!" Hollie leaned back into her chair, "I wonder what I'll wear."

"Quidditch!!" Marigold gasped, "I almost forget, the first Quidditch match is tomorrow! Aren't you playing? Slytherin versus Ravenclaw."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Hollie groaned, "I'm worried Lee will try to kill me."

"He might." Marigold joked, making Hollie laugh, "Trust me, he won't hurt you, he wants to win just as much as you, as much as anyone. He won't touch you tomorrow."

"Well, good. Now I'll just have to worry if I suck or not." Hollie groaned and looked up toward the ceiling. Marigold began to laugh like what Hollie said was really dumb.

"Of course you're good!" Marigold argued, making Hollie blush a little bit, "Jason wouldn't have picked you if you weren't. Between you and me, Jason is a little uptight, especially about Quidditch. He wants to go pro, he's known for being really ruthless on the field though."

"How do you know all of this?" Hollie asked her pale friend.

"I know a lot about the Quidditch players, I make sure I stay informed," Marigold shrugged, "I can name off different facts about all of them."

"Okay…Jerrad Tagety." 

"Quizzing me eh?" Marigold laughed, "Okay, Jerrad Tagety. First year Ravenclaw Keeper, known for his bigger size, predicted to shoot up to an impressive 6'5". Good hand eye coordination when it comes to the keeper position, but a bit clumsy everywhere else."

"Nice…" Hollie mumbled, "Beth Morgan."

"Third year Gryffindor Seeker, also the captain by the way. Not only the captain, but the youngest captain Gryffindor has had in at least 300 years. Quick and nimble, although a little wavery. One of the best they've had, next to Harry Potter of course." Marigold looked proud as she recited the facts, "The other team members are Rebeka Skyelar, Tony Prior, Griffin Dominic - The Chasers, Dason Zanders, Alana Peabody - The Beaters, and Marlon Avely - the Keeper."

"Okay, okay I get it." Hollie rolled her eyes, "You're the greatest."

"Funny." Marigold stuck out her tongue.

"You know, you should consider commentating with that Cryssy girl," Hollie smiled, "You could spout out stats as she lead us through the game."

"No…I don't think so." Marigold laughed nervously, "Thanks for the offer though."

"No really, you should! Talk to Professor McGonagall, she'll probably agree," Hollie gave Marigold a wide grin, but Marigold continued shaking her head, "At least think about it! Come on, it's dinner time."

  


* * *

Later that night when everyone was asleep, Hollie dreamed that she fell off of her broom and lost the match for everyone. Lee was there, smiling and yelling how she wasn't good enough to play the game. After she awoke from the nightmare she couldn't go back to sleep. She just kept thinking how she was going to screw everything up and Lee would be there waiting for her to do just that. For the first time she hated the fact that tomorrow was Saturday, she just wanted to crawl under her bed and never come out. Everybody would be there - her sister, Vinesah, Jack…how could she play in front of all of them? She didn't know why Jason trusted her anyway; she was nothing more than a Muggle who found out she had wizard blood…Bad wizard blood by the notes that her and her sister had gotten. That was another thing that worried her, whoever sent them the notes might be there…they might make her screw up. 

Hollie sat on her bed and looked out the window until sunrise, she then hurried to get dressed in her Quidditch uniform and took off downstairs to the Great Hall. Honestly, she didn't feel like dealing with Marigold's Quidditch excitement. When she stepped inside there was already students eating and the teachers were quietly talking amongst themselves. One of the students was Jack, her date for the Starry Night Ball. She blushed a little bit but then went over and sat down next to him.

"Hey Hollie, why are you up so early?" He asked as he sipped his drink, "Are you nervous or something?"

"Gee's what was your first clue?" She snapped and poured herself a cup of Pumpkin Juice; Jack just laughed at her. 

"Not much of a morning person are you?" He smiled and took a bite of his pancakes. She just rolled her eyes and picked up some food to eat, but she wasn't really that hungry so she just stared at her bacon and eggs. She looked over to the teachers' table and saw Professor Snape leering at her, almost like he was telling her to eat just with a look. Soon, other people began filing in, and they all seemed to be staring at her as they walked by. Deciding to take her mind off of the prying eyes of the students she talked to Jack about anything she could think off. He didn't object though, he just played along and talked back, even though Hollie had a feeling he knew what she was doing.

"When do you need to leave?" He asked her about a half-hour later as she nibbled on her soft bacon. It was the only kind she would eat; she hated the hard stuff.

"Right after breakfast." She answered, "The Quidditch match starts at noon you know. You are coming to watch right?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Jack smiled then looked away from her, "My date for the dance and my best friend duking it out on the Quidditch field. Sounds like an interesting situation."

"Oh yeah, interesting." Hollie sighed, "I should go, Jason is probably waiting for us."

She got up to leave, but before she got anywhere Jack grabbed her arm. She turned around shocked.

"Good luck." He said quietly and gave her a big smile. He then let go of arm and let her walk down to the Quidditch field, practically beaming the whole entire way. All she could think about was how cute Jack was…she didn't even realize she had entered the locker room. 

"Hollie!" Jason waving to her and calling out her name made her snap out of her daze. She noticed that the rest of the team was there, they all seemed to be pretty tired. She walked up and gave them a confused look.

"Am I late?" She asked, Jason gave her a firm smile.

"No, we're just all early." He said, everyone looked at her, "Here, we got you your broom."

"Cool." She grabbed it from Jason's hand and looked around, "Where's Lee?"

"Up there." Jason pointed above him, "Hasn't come down, that is what I call dedication."

"I'm here, I'm here." Lee came into the room, making everyone look at him, "Is it time yet?"

The Slytherin team looked more sinister than they ever have, making Hollie a bit nervous around them. The kind and funny Jason had seemingly left the building, replacing him with a more ruthless version. She just shrugged it off and listen to him call out team plays and the weaknesses of the other players. After what seemed like forever, 11:30 rolled around and hundreds of students began to fill the seats around the field. Hollie watched as the Ravenclaw team appeared and as Cryssy took her place in a reserved seat away from the other students. She also noticed a lot of her friends sitting down and getting ready to watch her. Her nervous swept over her again and she sat down on the bench below her.

"Are you okay?" Jason came over to her and sat next to her, "We can't have you freezing up."

"I'm okay…" She lied, but she didn't want Jason yelling at her for being a weakling or anything. She noticed Lee eyeing her and she quickly turned away from him. The last thing she needed was Lee's evil eye right now. 

"Welcome Students to the first Quidditch match of the season!" Professor McGonagall stepped out onto the middle of the field, "This year promises to be one of the best seasons we ever had with so many talented players!" - The crowd roared - "Playing the first game are the Ravenclaw, with Captain Vidar Raset returning, and the Slytherin, with new Captain Jason Kreeger. Let's have a good game people!"

The crowd cheered loudly again and McGonagall blew her whistle loudly and the teams entered the middle of the field. Hollie noticed thousands of people screaming loudly above her, she guessed they would be able to see when the teams began to fly themselves. She sighed and looked over at the Ravenclaw team, she recognized some of them from the other day and she saw Jerrad Tagety give her a small wave. She was extremely relieved that she was only a seeker and wouldn't be dealing with the big Keeper. 

"Are you ready?" McGonagall asked, the team captains nodded their heads and she blew the whistle. They were off, Hollie was soon flying in the air and, just as Jason had told her, she began zooming around the field as fast as she could.

"Welcome everybody to this glorious match today!" Cryssy's voice was suddenly heard throughout the field, "Looks like the Slytherin team has already taken control of the Quaffle, Chaser November Reese is barreling down the field faster than anyone - wait a Bludger is coming her way! She swerves to avoid it and Willow Jenkins of Ravenclaw now has control, a good move by Ravenclaw…wait some how Jason has taken the Quaffle from Willow and now he is heading toward the end of the field! Good job by Lee Prior and keeping the Bludgers away from Jason. Jason goes in, takes the shot! OH BLOCKED BY JERRAD TAGETY! Quaffle is picked up by Ravenclaw - Analee Manger is one of their best chasers and she is charging down the field…OH! Almost hit by a Bludger, sent her way by Phoenix Calhoun no doubt! She's still charging down the field, she passes it to Tom Alvary, he's going, passes it to Willow…now back to Tom. He's taking the shot now, Jose dives and …misses!… RAVENCLAW SCORES!" 

Damnit!" Hollie heard Sonny Avalone, another Slytherin chaser, mutter under his breath. November flew up next to Hollie.

"No sign of the Snitch?" She asked, Hollie shook her head, "Well keep looking and stay out of sight!"

So Hollie did just that as and watched around everyone for something to glitter a golden color, but nothing was around. She noticed Nick Talliwind, the Ravenclaw Seeker watching her, she guessed he was waiting for her to charge at something. Rolling her eyes she went back to watching for the elusive object. 

"Sonny Avalone now has control of the Quaffle, he is really close to the goal!" Cryssy's voice once again boomed in her ears, " Oh Imogene Halliwell beats a Bludger in his direction! He's gonna get hit folks…WAIT! Lee Prior hits in out of the way just in the knick of time! Sonny is going for the goal…oh! Blocked again by Jerrad! This guy is like a brick wall! Sonny has control again however and is going to try…SLYTHERIN SCORES!!"

Cheers roared from the Slytherin students and Hollie couldn't help but smile She turned to look at Cryssy…and saw something gold streak past her eyes. THE SNITCH! She perked up a little bit and tried to keep her eyes on where it would be. The game continued and she gradually began to chase it down, as to not lead Nick on, and pretty soon it was Ravenclaw leading 110 to 40. It seemed no one could get passed Jerrad, he was not only big, but he was quick. Hollie noticed Jason getting pretty angry, but her eyes were quickly diverted to the gold streak that went passed them yet again. 

"Ravenclaw has the ball, Analee will most likely score unless the Slytherin do something about it soon, there she goes and…FOUL!!!!"

Cryssy's voice was angered in that last word and Hollie looked over to see what happened. Lee had a scowl on his face as Analee went flying in the opposite direction, unable to control her broomstick. Some one had purposefully smacked Analee out of the way. At first she thought it was Lee, with that horrible scowl on his face how could it not be…

"Foul! Unnecessary Roughness on Analee Manger from Jason Kreeger!" McGonagall yelled, "Mr. Kreeger please refrain next time!"

Jason Kreeger? Hollie about choked, what was Jason thinking? At that moment she remembered Marigold telling her that Jason was pretty ruthless of the playing field. This didn't seem like the Jason she knew though. She was about to say something when Sonny flew up next to her.

"That was pretty funny huh?" Sonny asked, "Serves those Ravenclaw right, thinking that they're better than us."

Hollie blinked and watched as Sonny went back to playing the game. Her team was pretty ruthless, but she guessed that they were just wrapped up in the game. Some people just aren't at their best when they are playing a game. They were all probably just angry that they could seem to get the Quaffle passed Jerrad. She shook it off and went back to looking for the Snitch. It was long gone by now; the foul had distracted her. As Analee made her foul shot, Hollie began circling the parameter for any sign of the gold ball. Again she noticed Nick watching her ever so closely and that made Hollie realize something. The Ravenclaw were just as ruthless, they were just hiding it better. Nick was going to watch her and when she found the thing, he was gonna go after it a grab for it first. That had to be a form of cheating, Hollie wondered to herself, it just doesn't seem fair. Well, he wasn't gonna get the snitch, not if she had anything to say about it. 

Then, there it was…twinkling about 50 feet away from her near Cryssy's bench. It was bopping up and down without a care in the world; it seemed to like it there because it didn't move. Now she just had to figure out how to get to it without Nick trying for it either. Then Quickly Hollie took off in the general direction of the Snitch but still pretty far away. 

"WHOA! Hollie Skyelar seems to have gotten wind of the Snitch! She is moving very quickly in the opposite direction of me!" Cryssy yelled, Hollie's idea was working, "Nick Talliwind must see it too because he is heading in the same direction!"

Hollie looked behind her and saw Nick quickly gaining speed and catching up to her. Soon he was ahead of her, which she had figured would happen because he was more experienced on a broom. Once he was ahead of her completely she did a complete 90-degree angle and headed straight toward Cryssy. Everyone gasped as she zoomed toward the golden snitch.

"Hollie has expertly changed direction and is now heading toward me folks! Nick seems to have lost some control of his broom and is trying to stop to follow Hollie!"

Hollie could see it; it was getting closer and closer. She extended her hand and prepared to grip her fingers around it. 

"A BLUDGER IS COMING HOLLIE'S WAY! Vidar Raset has noticed Hollie's little plan and threw a Bludger straight at her! I don't want to watch this one folks!"

She couldn't stop now, it was so close! Just like in practice, Hollie was willing to take the blasted Bludger as long as she got to the snitch in time. She was almost there, but in the corner of her eye she could see the Bludger coming for her, it was going to connect with her pretty soon…then, she saw a sudden blurry figure get in front of her. 

"Lee Prior has beaten the Bludger out of Hollie's way! That was a fast move on his part!"

Hollie didn't have time to be shocked, she was now wrapping her fingers around the Snitch. When she was sure she had it she raised it up into the air and showed everyone triumphantly. 

"HOLLIE HAS IT!!! HOLLIE HAS IT!! SLYTHERIN WINS 190 To 120!!!" Cryssy actually sounded excited, it was weird, "What a game folks! What a game!" 

The whole Slytherin team gathered around Hollie and cheered in victory. She was beaming and couldn't believe she had pulled it off. She looked around and saw bright letters hanging in the air saying "Hollie rules!", she began to laugh as she noticed her sister and Chad waving their wands to make the letters change colors and shapes. McGonagall motioned for them to fly down, so they did and the bleachers began to follow suit. 

"Great Job Holl!" Jason smiled at her, "I knew I could count on you!"

"Yeah, that Jerrad guy is nearly impossible to get through!" November sighed, "If you wouldn't of gotten the Snitch, they would have killed us."

"Yeah, but Lee helped." Hollie told them, "He got to the Bludger in time…thanks Lee."

"I didn't do it for you." Lee replied angrily, "I wanted to win."

Nothing Lee could say though could dampen Hollie's feeling of pride. She was glowing, for a few glorious seconds she was the star. She was the reason they had one the game and it made her feel really good and no one could take that away from her, not even the evil Lee.

"Hollie! You did so good!" She heard her sister yelling as she tried to make her way to her.

"Impressive!" Her sister's friend, Chad, yelled too. She could hear Vinesah and some of her friends chanting.

"Hollie! Hollie! Caught the Ball-ee! The small little thing called the snitch! She caught it like it was a synch! GO HOLLIE!" 

That just made her smile grow wider although it was already so wide it was hurting her face. She didn't care though, this was her moment. Maybe this Quidditch thing wasn't so bad after all. 

  


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A/N: Okay, so this chapter had little or nothing to do with the main plot. However, I like it because I felt it kept with the flow of JKR's books. Sometimes you just have to have chapters that explain the characters more. This kind of showed Hollie that Slytherin can be a ruthless house, but she does fit inside of it. Honestly, what's with Lee? He's my character and I think he's a little git. *LOL* 

Review if you want, thanks for reading!


	6. The Aurora Pendent

A/N: This was another fun chapter to write. I think I'm going to stop saying that because every chapter is fun to write really. They just take awhile to write because they are so long. But I like them long. Doesn't it irk you when people have chapters that are only like a page long? That's not a chapter, that's a page. 

Anyway, enough with my ranting! Have fun reading!

  


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Chapter 6: 

The Aurora Pendent

(GRYFFINDOR)

  


Five days. That was all she had left, five days. The dance was in five days and she still didn't have a date. She was just a loser without a date, yup, that's what she was. On top of that, her birthday was in three days and she really didn't want to turn thirteen. See Rebeka had a thing about age, she hated the fact that she had to get older. To her, thirteen was ancient, a teenager. She was going to be a teenager. She hated getting old, so much so that she didn't even tell any of her Gryffindor friends about her birthday, not like they ever asked. Last year around this time when all the presents began coming in she just told them it was because her parents were so proud of her getting into such a special school. It seemed to work; no one asked questions after that. The only people who knew about her birthday were her parents, her sister, her Muggle friends back in America (Who thought she was in a boarding school in England somewhere), and Vinesah. Vinesah had found out accidentally, reading her mother's Happy Birthday letter. Rebeka didn't think Vinesah knowing was a huge deal since she was in the Hufflepuff house and she kept it very quiet. Though when she found out she went right out and bought a big book of fairy tales. In fact, Rebeka was trying to read the book as she sat in the Gryffindor common room after her classes that day. Hardly anyone was in there because most still had classes at that time, but her schedule allowed her a little more time - at least for today. 

Rebeka wasn't reading though, she couldn't seem to focus her eyes, she was just kind of staring at the big book. In fact, she had been staring at it for the last half-hour. Sighing, she closed the book and went up to her room to put it away. When she entered the room it seemed so empty, she couldn't hear the sound of Vidal's gentle hooting or the ruffling of her feathers. Rebeka had put Videl in the Owlery about a week ago and she was starting to miss her beloved pet. She walked over to the bed and put her book in the now empty cage (Which she was using as a make shift bookshelf), then walked back to the common room. Sitting in her seat was Beth, who looked up and smiled at her. 

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Rebeka asked her, "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I'm done, just got out of potions with Professor Albackle," Beth shrugged, "He's kind of a strange guy, but I love his accent."

"I like your accent." Rebeka smiled and sat down next to her.

"I don't have an accent," Beth laughed, "You Americans have an accent, and a strange one at that."

Beth and Rebeka had an ongoing fight that started last year over who had the accent, it was hilarious and all in fun. The two would probably be old ladies before it was settled who had the accent.

"Americans don't have accents," Rebeka argued, "We are devoid of all accents, we live to far away, You guys are the ones who sound all snooty… 'ALLO, 'OW AWR YOO?" 

"That is a horrible impression of a British accent… and we don't sound snooty." Beth leaned back in her chair, "See, we were first, then you Americans came along - therefore you made you own accent and since we are the originals we have no accent …Ain't that right, Dawg?"

"Nice inner city lingo." Rebeka laughed, "Maybe we should stick with our own accents."

"I don't have an accent," Beth argued then gave Rebeka a big smile.

"Are you two arguing about accents again?" A male voice said from the corner of the room. Both looked over and saw Chad smiling at them with his charming smile.

"Hi Chad!" Beth waved to him and shot him her own dazzling smile, "Wanna join us?"

"H-hi Beth." With those few words, Chad's confidence seemed to drain out of his body as he walked over to them. His eyes never seemed to leave the pretty blond sitting next to Rebeka. 

"Nice to see you too Adonis…" Rebeka muttered through gritted teeth as he sat across from her. He gave Rebeka a quick glance and a small smile, but then quickly turned his attention back to Beth.

"So how is it going Chad?" Beth asked him.

"Could be better, but it's going at least." He answered and looked down at his feet. Rebeka hardly ever saw Mister Confident like this, it was almost weird, "So have you two found dates for the dance yet?"

"I'm supposed to go with Tom," Beth sighed, "But Vidar was so mad about the loss to Slytherin that he is being a wanker and giving them extra practices. He just might make them practice that night. I would never do that to my team."

"Vidar…?" Rebeka mumbled.

"Captain of the Ravenclaw team." Chad quickly told her and Rebeka nodded her head.

"Oh, it's so hard to keep all the names straight." 

"So, what about you Rebeka, do you have a date?" Beth suddenly got very perky and her eyes began to glisten.

"No, I don't have a date." Rebeka shrugged, "Guess no one wants to go with me."

"OH GOODY!" Beth slammed her hands together and practically jumped off of her chair.

"Goody?" Rebeka leered at her, Beth began to blush.

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant that I just know someone who wants to go to the dance with you!" Beth exclaimed.

"Who?" Both Chad and Rebeka asked, both kind of shocked. Rebeka quickly noticed Chad's reaction and turned to him.

"Don't act so shocked that someone wants to take me." She told him, he smiled.

"You're shocked too!" 

"Well, I'm allowed to be Mister! You are not!" Rebeka smiled at him and turned back to Beth, "Now who?"

"Griffin!" Beth gave her a wink, "He told me during your sister's game, he thinks your cool. Kept going on and on about how smart you are and how good you are at Quidditch."

"Griffin?" Rebeka began to think about the prospect. Griffin Dominic was another Chaser on the team. They had gotten on really well during practices, but she didn't think he would want to take her to the dance. Griffin was pretty cute though, with his sunken blue eyes and messy black hair he had kind of a mysterious quality. Plus he was also one of the best players on the team, and he was a 3rd year, "He wants to go…with me?"

"Yes!" Beth exclaimed, practically gitty from excitement, "Would you go with him if he asked you?"

"I…don't see why not," Rebeka smiled, "Not like anyone else would ever ask me, you know?"

"Gee's, you are so down on yourself." Beth sighed in disappointed, "You just don't realize how pretty you really are."

"Tell that to the guys. I'm not the one with the boyfriend," Rebeka argued, then looked at Chad, "Or have guys drooling all over me."

"Well, I have a boyfriend who may not be able to go to the dance with me, but don't worry. You don't need swarms of guys chasing after you, you just need one special one." Beth looked over to Chad, "Speaking of swarms, I heard Callie Richards asked you to the dance…along with 20 other girls! Who are you going with?"

"I haven't decided yet." Chad shrugged.

"Chad, you know there is only five days left!" Beth gasped, "You need to make a decision!"

"Yeah, I will." Chad told her in a monotone voice. What Beth didn't know is that he wanted to go with her, but Rebeka thought it best not to tell her that. Beth smiled and stood up. 

"Okay, well, I'm gonna go find Griffin and tell him to ask you! This is so exciting!" Beth began walking away, "Just wait till I tell Cryssy! She'll be so excited! I'll see you later Beka! Bye Chad!"

"B-bye…" Chad waved a little bit. When Beth was gone and out of hearing distance Rebeka began to laugh hysterically.

"Oh my god you are such a doofus around girls!" She laughed and held out her index finger and thumb in the shape of an L, "Loser."

"Is that an American thing?" He tilted his head to the side, "It's very unbecoming."

"It's never gonna happen Chad," She said, "Why don't you get over it and find someone else to go with?"

"I'm…not…" He didn't finish, he just looked away from her with a sheepish look on his face, "So, you really want to go with Griffin huh?"

"Why not, he's nice, he's cute, and he wants to go with me." Rebeka smiled widely, "No one else wants to go with me."

Chad looked over to her, "Beth's right, you really are too down on yourself." 

"Well, do you know anyone else who wants to go with me? I would love to know any names, then I can be like you and Beth…" She asked him with a smug look on her face, he just gave her a blank stare.

"Yeah, well…" Chad leaned back into the big red chair, "I have to decide who I'm going with."

"Aw, that should be such a hard task for you too." Rebeka replied sarcastically, "Must be a pity to have more than one person ask you to the dance. Woe is you, Woe is you."

"Ha, ha. I forgot just how funny you are." Chad rolled his eyes, Rebeka just sighed, "It's not as easy as you think, you know."

"I should go, I have some homework I need to finish for transfiguration." She stood up to leave and get out of the commons. She was pretty angry with Chad for being so heartless. He didn't care about the fact that she could never find a date; he only cared that he couldn't get Beth. 

"How come you never told us about your birthday?" Chad suddenly said, making Rebeka stop in her tracks.

"Excuse me?"

"Your birthday, you never said that September 25th was your birthday…," He said a little too quietly, almost like he was hurt it was never mentioned.

"I have my reasons." She turned to look at him, but all she saw was his profile as he stared at the flames in the fireplace. 

"And you say I'm secretive…" He looked at her then, and she sighed.

"How did you know? Who told you?"

"No one told me, I figured it out." He lied, she knew it was a lie, but Chad was loyal and would never tell where he had gotten his information so she didn't argue it, "Why didn't you tell us? I mean it is just a birthday."

"It is not just a birthday." She glared at him, "It is the time you realize you're another year older and another year of your life has just passed you by. What is there to celebrate about that?"

"The fact that you didn't die." He joked, making Rebeka smile.

"Well, I don't see it as such a happy occasion, so now that you know, you can't make a big deal out of it." 

"Hey, you know me, I don't make a big deal out of anything." He laughed, "Though I would watch out for Cryssy, who knows what she has up her sleeve."

"Wonderful, how many people know?" Rebeka asked with disappointment in her voice.

"Cryssy, Me, and Tony…though I'm sure Cryssy has told Beth by now." Chad answered.

"Great…" Rebeka rolled her eyes and walked away from Chad and toward her room to do her homework, "Just Great."

  


* * * 

The next morning Rebeka gingerly made her way down to the great hall for breakfast. She was really tired because she had practically stayed up all night and she didn't feel like going to any of her classes, but she drug herself anyway, to get ready for a new day. It was Tuesday, but the way she felt it was like Monday all over again. Only two days until her birthday, she wanted to punch something. When she sat down next to Chad and Tony hundreds of owls swept above her head, they had brought the day's mail. About four or five owls headed in her direction and dropped five different sized packages, with a letter attached to the one in blue paper. People around her began staring and wondered what they packages could be, Rebeka blushed and smiled at all of them, but didn't answer their quizzical looks. 

"What are those?" Chad muttered so no one else could hear.

"Birthday presents." Rebeka sighed and ripped open the letter from her parents:

  


_ Becki,_

_These are the letters and birthday presents from your "Muggle" friends (see that, I'm learning the lingo)in America and London. We had them all send or bring them to us so we could send them off. They didn't ask questions, I guess they thought we were saving them on postage. It's lucky your friends have no idea what's going on. We will be sending our presents tomorrow, so you should get them soon after these arrive. We'll be using Trunks so you can say Hello to him. By the way, your father hates that name and is trying to rename him Conan, but he'll only answer to Trunks. He tried putting a spell on him, but poor Trunks only turned into a toad. Lucky we quickly learned how to fix it! But now Trunks is very angry and very loud, I don't know how wizards hide these creatures from Muggles. Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Tell Hollie hi for us and send back Videl to let us know you got these. DON'T OPEN THEM UNTIL YOUR BIRTHDAY! _

_ Love, Mom_

_P.S. Your father says don't turn anyone into a toad, unless they bug you._

  


"You have Muggle friends?" Chad asked after reading the letter over her shoulder, she glared at him, "That's not what I meant and you know it. I just never met anyone who knew any Muggles…heck, I've never met a muggle that didn't have a witch or wizard in the family. What do they get you for your birthday?"

Rebeka laughed, "Well, weird and freakish Muggle stuff of course. Nothing you would be interested in I'm sure."

"On the contrary," Chad argued as he scooped some food onto his plate, "I find it fascinating how Muggles live without the use of any magic at all."

"Well, we have our own special kind of magic." She winked at him and looked down at her presents.

"You said 'we', you're not a Muggle."

"I have lived as one most of my life, I still haven't lost that Muggleness quite yet." She looked over to him and noticed a big smile come across his face.

"You say some of the weirdest things sometimes." He told her, "Must be an American thing."

"Yeah, that's what it is." She looked at her presents again, "The only reason I like birthdays, all the presents."

"You are a very strange girl." Chad stared at her for a second then went back to eating his food. She didn't know whither to take that as a compliment or an insult. She shrugged and started grabbing some food for herself. The whole time she was eating she kept eyeing the presents. Pretty soon, they were all that were on her mind; she went from class to class thinking about nothing but the presents. Even when she was in potions, her favorite class, all she wanted to do was run back to her room and open them. She had a hard time paying attention to Professor Albackle as he talked about Charm potions. Of course it didn't help that her and Vinesah were talking about what kind of neat stuff could be inside. Even with being a wizard she still could find the appeal in a writing journal or a Cd. 

When the class was finally over, for the first time it had seemed to drag on forever, Rebeka and Vinesah walked out quickly, not even noticing that Chad and Kirsten were desperately trying to keep up with them. They were too engrossed in the conversation to notice anything around them…

"Rebeka?" Griffin was waiting for her at the end of the long hallway. Rebeka jumped a little bit, not expecting him to be there.

"Well, HELLO." Vinesah muttered, "He is cute."

"SHHH." Rebeka hissed then smiled at Griffin, "Hi Griffin, what's up?"

Griffin looked at the other three with Rebeka and began to turn a pinkish hue, "Can I talk to you alone for a second?"

"Sure, why not." Rebeka smiled and looked back to her friends, she noticed Chad roll his eyes, "I'll see you later."

She walked away with Griffin and when he thought they were far enough from her friends he stopped and turned to her.

"Um…I was kind of wondering… Something." Griffin wasn't known for getting nervous, yet there he was… getting nervous, "I talked to Beth you know…"

"Uh-huh." Rebeka looked down to avoid his gaze.

"So, do you wanna?" He asked her, "Go to the dance with me, I mean."

"I…I would love to go!" Rebeka answered, "I mean, yeah…I guess so."

Griffin smiled, "Really?"

"Of course, Really."

"Wow, cool." Griffin's smile grew wider, "We'll have fun I promise. Um, I have to go to my next class now but I'll se you later."

"Okay, see ya." Rebeka waved him off and he walked down the hall. She ran down the opposite direction to get to her next class.

Over the next two days more presents arrived by owl (From her parents and her grandparents), but she was to excited about the dance to pay any attention that her birthday was right around the corner. She had practically told everyone about her date being Griffin. He was totally cool and in those two days both of them had gotten to know each other really well. Tony finally got the nerve to ask Tifnee, a Slytherin who was friends with Lee, and she said yes of course. Who wouldn't go out with a Prior? Vinesah was going with Alex Guttiara, the team captain of Hufflepuff. She had asked him during a short period of bravery and he said yes. Rebeka finally got to met Jack, Hollie's date and really liked him, except that he was a little too quiet for her taste, but this was Hollie's choice so Rebeka didn't mind too much. Rebeka's parents heard about the dance from Hollie and had sent Hollie a baby blue dress robe that they had bought just for it. It was very pretty and Rebeka hoped that one of her presents from them would be a maroon dress robe so she could look nice too. Excitement was in the air as the dance crept closer and closer, then (as if time had skipped two days) it was Rebeka's birthday. Rebeka wanted so badly to go and open her presents that were waiting for her, but she had to sit through her classes first.

"Okay class, I still don't see any pin cushions!" McGonagall yelled to them all as they tried to turn porcupines into pincushions. Usually not getting it by now would make Rebeka very angry, but she was too busy thinking about other things. She did manage to turn her porcupine into a brown ball of yarn though; it made her laugh until she got reprimanded by McGonagall herself. Everyone else thought it was pretty funny though and began to laugh right along with her. 

Finally, finally, finally, her last class ended and she made a mad dash toward the Gryffindor tower. When she got to the entrance the fat lady in the pink dress was smiling at her.

"Hello dear Rebeka." The fat lady greeted, Rebeka waved.

"Tallonius Figs!" Rebeka said the password and the picture swung open. Rebeka quickly got inside - where Cryssy, Vinesah, Griffin, Hollie, Beth, Kirsten, and Tony were waiting for her with a small sign that read "It is no one's birthday!" People who saw it looked at them strangely, but Rebeka laughed.

"Hiya No One!" Hollie waved and walked over to her.

"How did you get in here?" Rebeka asked.

"We got permission from Professor McGonagall," Vinesah smiled, "We're lucky she likes Cryssy."

"Yeah! I wanted this birthday to be special, even though you hate them." Cryssy was beaming; Rebeka could tell it was all her idea. She smiled widely and looked around the room, she noticed Chad was no where to be seen.

"Where's Chad?" Rebeka asked, rather disappointed.

"He has a class or something, he couldn't make it." Beth answered, "But he gave you a card, said he didn't want to make to big a deal out of your birthday."

Rebeka smiled, Chad really did listen to her. 

"Come on! Your presents are waiting!" Hollie exclaimed and took off toward the girl's side of the tower.

"Are you sure we can go up there?" Tony asked, talking about the two guys.

"Don't be a chicken Tony, you won't get in trouble, I promise!" Cryssy grabbed his hand and began to drag him, he flinched like something was going to happen to him, and when nothing did he sighed happily "First years, I swear. We got permission from McGonagall, you two can come up just for today."

"I'm not a chicken!" Tony answered, but his weak voice was telling them other wise. When they got into Beth and Rebeka's room she saw about 15 presents sitting on the bed, waiting for her to open. All of them ran over and Rebeka quickly grabbed for one.

"Oh! Who's it from?" Kirsten asked, "Don't open mine first!"

"You guys didn't have to get me anything!" Rebeka told them, they all blushed a bit, "But thanks!"

"Who's it from!?" Hollie yelled, getting a bit impatient.

"This one is from Sarah, my Muggle friend in America." Rebeka quickly opened it up, inside was a photo book, to keep photographs in.

"What an ingenious invention." Beth remarked, "Muggles can be so smart sometimes."

Rebeka opened up the rest of her Muggle presents (A journal, a pen set, a calendar, and a new watch) and the people around her oohed and aahed over the strange Muggle things. Well, except for Vinesah, who was explaining what each thing did ("See the calendar keeps Muggles up to date on the day and month, we also use it to write down our daily plans"). Rebeka then got to the good stuff, the wizard things. She picked up her parent's presents first. Inside was a potion set and the maroon dress robe that she was hoping for.

"Oh Griffin, your date is gonna look good for the ball!" Cryssy exclaimed, making both Rebeka and Griffin blush. Rebeka went for her Grandparents gift. She ripped open the envelope and saw 50 Galleons come pouring out. A little note was attached that read;

  
  
  


_Couldn't think of what to get you, so we splurged. Tell Hollie we'll do the same for her._

_ Grandpa and Grandma._

"Yeah, they better do the same thing for me." Hollie muttered under her breath, then she smiled, "Open mine! Open mine!"

"Okay," Rebeka grabbed the one wrapped in baby blue wrapping paper. She unwrapped it quickly and saw a magical camera, "Wow!"

"Now you can take those cool wizardy moving photos!" Hollie proclaimed happily. Rebeka then went from present to present (A book of Wizard folklore from Vinesah, a cute figurine of a broom and a Quaffle from Beth and Cryssy, a self writing pen from Kirsten, A framed picture of Videl from Tony, and a small charm bracelet from Griffin) and thanked everyone for their great gifts.

"You guys really didn't have to." Rebeka laughed as she opened up Chad's card, "I mean, Chad only got me a card."

"Yeah, he can be such a jerk." Vinesah mumbled, but Rebeka just smiled.

"I told him not to make a big deal out of my birthday! It's okay." She looked down and started to read:

  


_Beka,_

_Even though you're scared, I think you'll make a fine thirteen-year-old. You're a good person, so don't worry. It'll all turn out okay in the end…at least I hope so._

_ Your Pal, Chad_

  


She passed it around so everyone could read it, they had to admit, it was short but sweet. He was a good guy even though he didn't show it a lot.

"Okay, so he can be sweet…sometimes…" Vinesah smiled, "Is that all of the presents?"

"Yeah, I think so, that's all we brought up," Beth shrugged. Rebeka smiled and looked around, sitting on her pillow was a small gold box.

"What's this?" Rebeka asked as she retrieved the box. She showed it to everyone, they all just looked confused.

"I didn't bring that up…" Cryssy told her, Beth shook her head as if to say she didn't either.

"Are you sure you guys?" Tony asked, "You two were the only ones who brought up the presents."

"Positive, I would have remembered bringing up something that shiny." Cryssy said.

"I wonder where it came from." Kirsten wondered a loud.

"Screw that, who is it from?" Hollie asked, Rebeka looked around for a name, but there was nothing on the box. 

"I don't know, it doesn't say." Rebeka mumbled.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense, open up the blasted thing!" Cryssy yelled and everybody nodded their heads in agreement. Rebeka sighed and took off the small gold twine that was keeping the box together then opened it. Inside was a small diamond like jewel in the shape of a teardrop dangling from a delicate golden chain. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. She picked it up out of the box to show everybody, they all gasped.

"It's so pretty…" Hollie murmured.

"It's much more than pretty." Beth exclaimed, almost breathlessly, "That is an Aurora Pendent…"

"An A-what-a Pendent?" Hollie asked.

"I can't believe it… who sent this to you?" Cryssy seemed in awe too; this had to be some pendent.

"What's an Aurora Pendent?" Rebeka asked as she dangled the pretty jewel in front of her face. 

"An Aurora Pendent is made from the Aurora Gem." Vinesah spouted out, "In the Wizard world it's more sought after and more valuable than a diamond."

"Really? Why?" Rebeka looked toward the group who was staring at the necklace. 

"Put your wand to it and say Lumos." Beth told her. Rebeka shrugged and grabbed her wand, putting it to the small jewel.

"Lumos" As soon as the light hit the jewel it seemed to absorb it, causing the gem to light up, shining a brilliant white light. Then, the colors changed from red to blue to green to orange to purple. The gem was changing colors right in front of her eyes, lighting up beautifully. She gasped, it was so beautiful.

"Wow, I've never seen one in action before." Kirsten sighed, "I've only seen them inside fancy wizard jewelry stores."

"Are they expensive?" Hollie asked and Cryssy began to laugh.

"Extremely, whoever bought this for your sister defiantly thinks she is something special." She answered, and Rebeka looked at her.

"I can't take this." Rebeka mumbled, "It's too much…I have to find whoever gave it to me and give it back."

"Maybe that's why they didn't put their name on it, because they knew you would do that." Kirsten exclaimed, "Oh, how mysterious!"

"Kirsten has a thing for enigma's." Vinesah told everyone. 

"I want one!" Hollie yelled, "You can give it to me!"

"Hollie, no." Rebeka smiled as she stared at the Pendent, "I don't understand, who would do this…?"

"Maybe you have a secret admirer." Tony suggested.

"Yeah, a really rich secret admirer." Cryssy joked. 

"Well, he's not going to the dance with her whoever it is." Griffin piped up defensively, "I'm doing that."

"Hmmm… still don't you guys think this is a little strange?" Rebeka asked them, "Whoever it is I at least have to thank them."

"At least!" Beth proclaimed, "This guy must really dig you."

Rebeka put her wand to the gem and it stopped glowing, returning to its diamond like glitter and luster. After much coaxing, Rebeka put it on as they went down to the commons room to talk about the dance some more. Rebeka every once and awhile reach up and feel the necklace, wondering who got it for her. Whoever it was, she had to thank them. Of course that meant figuring out who gave it to her in the first place.

"Rebeka, you should wear the necklace to the ball!" Vinesah told her, "It would look so pretty all lit up and stuff."

"Totally, it's yours now, you need to use it!" Beth smiled, "Show it off a little."

"I don't know…" Rebeka mumbled.

"Yeah, you should, " Griffin looked over to her with his deep blue eyes, "It looks really pretty on you."

She blushed, "Okay, I will. Are you sure none of you bought me this?"

Everyone answered with a resounding no, which made Rebeka wonder even more who bought her the danged thing…

  


________________________________________________________

  


A/N: This IS a mystery. Because, as you know, if it's a guy who gave her the necklace, how the heck did he get up the stairs? Clearly states in the fifth book that boys can't go up there. Hmmm, maybe he had help? HMMMMMMM. Anyway, next chapter is the ball! Whoot! Whoot!

As always, Thanks for reading

Review if you want to!

Read Aftershocks!

Keep making that face and it will stick like that!

^_^


	7. The Starry Night Ball

A/N: Maybe I should explain why Rebeka is turning 13 in the last chapter. Well, according to what I beleive, Harry is a young 1st year when he turns 11, since he turned 11 at the cut off point, he was able to go instead of waiting another year. Rebeka Skyelar, however, was an old 1st year, since she would have been 10 when the term started she had to wait another year before getting excepted. Hollie Skyelar is the norm, her birthday being March 18th. That's how I beleive it works. ^_^

Anyway, the Starry Night Ball is upon us now! Oh! how exciting! I always thought that Harry Potter should have had dances, but maybe it's not something they do in England. 

Also, I seem to be following the path of a lot of other American fanfiction (American girl going to Hogwart's, Dances suddenly appearing out of thin air... Harry and the gang aren't arround though, so that's different) I just hope mine is actually good. Not to say there aren't good ones out there like that, it's just the majority of the whole "American girl goes to Hogwart's" Genre is really awful. Hope mine is somewhat decent. 

  


Anyway, on with the Story!!!!

  


________________________________________________________

  


Chapter 7: 

The Starry Night Ball

(GRYFFINDOR)

  


It was here. At 7:00 o clock on Saturday night the Starry Night Ball would begin… and at 4:00 o clock that day is when all the girl's in Rebeka's room began to get ready. Beth was busy putting small purple flowers in her short blond hair to match her lavender dress robe. Merriam Greenwalde was deciding which dress robe to wear, her blue one or her yellow one. Rebeka rolled her eyes at that; Merriam's family was pretty rich, so she of course got a choice. The other third year, Yolanda Everett, was still in the bathroom, putting on her makeup. 

"Bek, what are you going to do about your hair?" Beth asked as she put the last flower in her hair, she looked remarkable.

"I don't know, I really hadn't thought about it. Just leave it down I guess." Rebeka shrugged and Beth turned to look at her.

"Now is not the time to leave your hair down!" She exclaimed, "My hair is too short to put up, but you have enough. I can do it for you."

"I… okay." Rebeka sighed and sat in the chair next to Beth's. Merriam looked over to them.

"Can I help?" She asked, "I'm really good at that sort of thing!"

"Sure, she'll be our little project." Beth stood up and grabbed her wand, "This is why I like being a wizard."

"I'll go get my hair spray…" Merriam took off and came back with a bottle of 'Stay-4-all', "Wizard brand hair spray, it's the best."

Beth used her wand to place Rebeka's hair on top of her head in a pretty Audrey Hepburn sort of way. She then let a few strands dangle and curled them. Merriam began to spray immediately. After about 15 minutes they were done, looking at their work with wonder.

"You look amazing." Beth sighed, "I am a genius." 

Rebeka turned around and looked in the mirror - she hardly recognized herself! She looked so elegant and refined, not the her she was used to seeing. 

"Wow, great job you guys!" Rebeka exclaimed as Yolanda rushed out of the bathroom.

"Bathroom's free!" She said, "Time to do my hair!"

"MAKE UP!" Beth and Rebeka yelled and the same time and rushed toward the bathroom. It wasn't exactly free, since they were sharing a bathroom with four other rooms, but there was just enough room to get themselves in there to put on the makeup. Beth chose pretty pastels to go with her dress while Rebeka picked darker tones. She put on a somewhat dark brown lipstick and looked at herself.

"I look older." Rebeka said with disappointment.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Beth laughed, "You're going with a third year, you need to look older."

"Hey, did Chad ever tell you who he was going with?" Rebeka asked Beth.

"No, but the girl he is going with did." Beth smiled and looked at her.

"OOH! Who?"

"Aphrodite Avery, she's a third year." Beth proclaimed, "Absolutely gorgeous. I would kill to look like her."

"Aphrodite Avery?" Rebeka mumbled to herself, "Is her sister a Slytherin… um… Ambrosia?"

"Yeah, that's her." Beth laughed, "Ambrosia and Aphrodite, somebody's parents liked Greece…"

"Ambrosia room's with my sister, she says that she's kind of a snob." Rebeka shrugged, "I guess Aphrodite isn't one."

"No, no. She is, but have you looked at Chad. He is very cute." Beth remarked, Rebeka laughed. If Chad were here to hear that, he would have died. Beth was actually calling him cute, "She's been bragging to all of us third years since he asked her."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rebeka gasped, "HE asked HER?"

"That's her story." Beth shrugged, "Are you finished putting on Make up?"

"Yeah, let's go back, I still have to change." 

Those three hours they gave themselves seemed to fly by as they all got ready and laughed and giggled about whom they were going to dance with. Merriam was going with a Ravenclaw named George, but she wanted to dance with his friend Ian. Yolanda was going with her Gryffindor boyfriend, Dason Zanders, who happened to be a beater for the Quidditch team. All of them were talking about what they thought it was going to be like and pretty soon, the Clock had struck 6:30… it was time to go.

"Oh, I'm nervous!" Beth exclaimed, "Tom is going to be waiting for me just outside the tower entrance!"

"You're lucky," Yolanda proclaimed, "My boyfriend is waiting for me just downstairs!"

"Hey, Bek, don't forget your Aurora Pendent." Beth told her. Rebeka gasped, she had almost forgotten about it. She walked over to her nightstand and took it out of its gold box and put it around her neck. She then touched her wand to it and said the magic word; it began glowing its brilliant colors. 

"OOH! An Aurora Pendent!" Yolanda sighed, "How did you get one of those?"

"She got it for her birthday…" Beth told her, "From her secret admirer!"

"Cool!" Yolanda hopped a little, "It's so pretty."

"I have an Aurora Pendent at home." Merriam told them, "My parents wouldn't let me bring it with me, they thought it would get stolen."

"Well, too bad for you." Beth rolled her eyes, "Are you guys ready to go?" 

All the girls squealed in delight and walked down the stairs to the common room. Waiting there were the boys in their dress robes, all of them looked pretty nervous. 

"Wow…" Rebeka heard a voice behind her and turned around. Standing there was her date for the evening, Griffin Dominic. He looked like he was in awe, "You look great."

Rebeka blushed almost the color of her robe, "Really? You think so?"

"I do." Griffin smiled, "Are you ready to go?"

"Uh, yeah." Rebeka looked around for Chad, but couldn't see him anywhere. She was disappointed; she wanted to see him and his date. 

Her and Griffin walked down the Great Hall arm and arm, but they weren't expecting what they saw. It was beautifully decorated like they were in the heavens. Stars glittered all around them, even under their feet. As soon as they entered they felt as thought they were floating in outer space. A beautiful symphony orchestra was playing on the stage, playing slow music for them to dance to. Around them there were only few tables, and most of those had many things to eat sitting on them. On one wall - well what she thought was a wall, it was hard to distinguish where the walls even were - stars spelled out "Starry Night Ball." It was beautiful.

"This place looks great!" Griffin exclaimed, "It feels like we're floating in the sky."

"Wonderful…" Rebeka muttered out, but she wasn't sure if Griffin heard her or not. She looked around for someone she knew, and spotted Hollie in her baby blue robe talking to her date Jack, "Oh, there's Hollie! Let's go say hello!"

Rebeka didn't even give him time to answer as she drug him over to where Hollie was. Hollie gave Rebeka a quick glancing over.

"You look so good!" She said, "I like your hair up!"

"You look good too!" Rebeka told her sister, Hollie blushed a little bit.

"Well, Hollie always looks good," Jack said, making Hollie blush even more. While they talked more and more people began filing in. Rebeka saw Beth and Tom, they were already dancing on the dance floor. Cryssy was talking to the teachers at the front of the room; she gave Rebeka a small wave. Vinesah came in with her date, Alex. She seemed a little embarrassed though, like she shouldn't have a date or something. One by one, everyone filed in and the giant room filled with people. It was then Radcliffe stepped on stage.

"Welcome everybody to the first annual Starry Night Ball!" He started; everyone clapped loudly, "I wanted to start this tradition as a way of welcoming all of you back to our grounds… well if you're first years then just to our grounds. I hope this becomes a grand tradition and one that you'll look forward too every year! Who knows, if this takes off, we may have more dances in the future! Okay, enough of my talking, have fun and dance the night away!"

"Care to dance?" Griffin asked her.

"I would be honored milord." Rebeka smiled and bowed her head. Both walked onto the dance floor and began waltzing. It was pretty hard to do Rebeka found, but Griffin was a good dancer and led the way. She got it pretty quickly. She loved it; she could dance all night if they would allow it. Griffin made it seem easy and she just followed his lead. It must have been three songs before they took a break.

"You are a good dancer." Griffin proclaimed, Rebeka laughed.

"I'm only a good dancer because you led me." She said.

"Do you want some punch?" 

"Sure… I could use a drink." Rebeka smiled at him and he took off to find the punch bowl. Rebeka drifted away from the dance floor and toward the corner of the room. She was sure Griffin would find her eventually but she wanted to take it all in, it was all so magical. She watched a lot of her friends dance and laugh and have a good time, it made her happy to see that everyone was together for a good time instead of competition.

"You clean up nicely." A voice from no where said, she looked around and saw Chad standing next to her. He looked perfect in his black dress robes, "I like your hair."

"You don't look so bad yourself." She smiled at him, "Where's Aphrodite?"

"She's around, she has to talk to everyone before she dances." Chad shrugged, "I don't really see the point."

"That's quite a date you picked up for yourself." Rebeka nudged him, "Most guys would give their right arm just to be able to talk to her."

"Yeah, well, I took your advice. I moved on and since my second choice was already taken, I went with the next best thing." He looked over to her and smiled, "Nice necklace."

"Yeah, it is. According to everyone it's a big, expensive gem." Rebeka sighed, "But I don't know anything about this kind of stuff… you know, Muggleness."

"It is expensive. Aurora Pendants can run a pretty penny. Where did you get it?"

"I got it for my birthday." She beamed with pride.

"Oh, did Muscles over there give it to you?" Chad motioned toward the direction that Griffin was in.

"Griffin? No, he got me this bracelet," Rebeka sighed, "I don't know who got me the necklace though. Didn't have a name on it."

"Interesting."

"Yeah, I want to find out who gave it too me. Thank them or something." Rebeka smiled, "It was way to generous, I don't deserve something this pretty."

"Yeah, you do." He said and she turned to look at him, "It looks nice on you, completes you're whole look. You look good."

"Really?" Rebeka looked down at herself, she didn't think she looked that great.

"No one compares…" He muttered close to her so only she could hear. She looked at him and blushed furiously and he smiled at her. 

"Chad!" A beautiful, model-like blond came over to them with a somewhat annoyed look on her face, "I am ready to dance now!"

"Aphrodite!" Chad said in a somewhat fake cheerfulness, "I was looking all over for you!"

"Who is the girl?" Aphrodite shot Rebeka an icy glare.

"This is my friend Rebeka Skyelar." Chad introduced, "She is just a friend."

With those words Aphrodite smiled and held out her hand, "It is a pleasure. I'm Aphrodite Avery."

Rebeka shook it gingerly, "Nice to meet you." 

"Yes…" Aphrodite eyeballed her up and down, "I know you, you're that girl who plays Quidditch…the new chaser girl. You are practicing a lot."

"Yeah, we're getting ready for our first game next Saturday." Rebeka smiled proudly.

"Quidditch is such a boys game," Aphrodite sighed, "I don't understand why girl's play it."

"If you saw her play then you would figure it out pretty quickly." Griffin's voice was heard and he came up on the group. Rebeka smiled and turned to him, "Well, what do we have here?"

"This is Aphrodite Avery…and I think you know Chad Halewend," Rebeka introduced.

"We've only met briefly," Griffin shook hands with Chad, "You're pretty good friends with her right?"

"Yeah, you could say that." Chad shrugged.

"Have you never noticed just how pretty she is?" Griffin looked down to Rebeka, who blushed. Chad didn't answer though; he just looked away from the two.

"Are you ready to dance now?" Aphrodite asked Chad with a hint of whininess.

"Yeah, let's go." Chad walked off quickly without so much as a glance toward Rebeka.

"What's with him?" Griffin watched as Chad and Aphrodite walked on the glowing dance floor.

Rebeka shrugged, "That's just how he is, you get used to it."

"Okay, whatever you say." Griffin looked back to her, "You wanna go and dance again?"

"I haven't even had time to drink my punch!" Rebeka smiled, "I suppose I can drink it later, so let's go."

Griffin smiled and they both walked toward the dance floor, only to be grabbed by Vinesah. She looked very elegant in her Dark Purple dress robes and her red hair put up but still a little messy. She had managed somehow to put pearls in her hair, and they shimmered under the starlight.

"That necklace looks so pretty on you!" Vinesah sighed, "I want one."

"Maybe someday Vinesah," Rebeka smiled, "Just find some one who is rich and likes to waste their money."

"Easier said than done!" Vinesah exclaimed, "I wonder if there is a spell for that…"

"Where's Alex?" Rebeka wondered and looked over Vinesah's shoulders, "I want to met this guy who you deemed worthy enough to ask to the ball."

"He's sitting at one of the tables," Vinesah smiled and looked back, "Do you want me to go get him?"

"Well, yeah!" Rebeka looked up to Griffin and shrugged as if to apologize for the delay in plans. Vinesah held up her hands to tell them to stay put and went to get Alex.

"Alex is a cool guy, I think you'll like him." Griffin smiled as Alex and Vinesah came up to them, "He's a bit jumpy though, you'll have to get used to that."

"Griffin!" Alex yelled happily as he came into view. Both of the guys shook hands and Alex looked over to Rebeka, "Who is the girl?"

"This is Rebeka," Griffin smiled shyly, "She's a Chaser for our team, she is also my date for the evening. "

"Yes, I've heard of you. You supposedly caught the Bludgers with your bare hands," Alex said as Vinesah came up behind him, "Pretty impressive."

"I was just trying to save my sister." Rebeka looked toward the dance floor, "Are you guys gonna dance?"

"I don't know…" Vinesah looked back to Alex.

"Sure, is that where you guys were headed?" Alex smiled and both couple's went toward the dance floor. Again, a waltzy kind of music plays and Griffin and Rebeka danced in circles around everyone else. She would glance at Vinesah, who was trying to teach Alex not to step on her foot, and then back at Griffin as they made their way around the dance floor. She noticed Chad too, gracefully dancing with the beautiful blond girl, she never knew he could dance. In fact, there was a lot about him she didn't know. That made her a bit angry and turned to look away from him, this was not the time to get angry.

The whole night was a whirlwind of dancing and talking and laughing, just having a good time. Rebeka never wanted the night to end. Everything seemed to be perfect and she wished it would last forever. After about the thirtieth time on the dance floor though, Rebeka was feeling a bit warm and all the people around was not making it any easier. She excused herself from her big group and walked into the dark hallway that led to the Great Hall. Music could be heard blaring from inside, it was so loud even the big doors hardly muffled the sound. It was cool in the hall though, much cooler than inside the big ballroom. She took a couple of deep breath and went to sit on the staircase; her shoes' "Clunks" echoing of the giant walls. She just stared at the massive building, never taking it in like she was in this moment. This was such a magical place, and not just because of the magic that the teachers taught, there was just something about it. 

"Out here, by yourself?" Nearly Headless Nick appeared in the hallway and looked at her shocked, "Something the Matter?"

"No, no. I'm just a little warm that's all." Rebeka smiled at him, Nick then smiled back at her.

"I wish I could feel warm again, I'm always so cold now-a-days," Nick began to laugh, "Of course, I am dead…"

"Of course."

"Well, my dear, keep your spirits up. We have a match to win in one week." Nick then began to whistle and took off toward the opposite direction, leaving her alone again, listening to the music that was playing inside. She stood up and turned her back away from the doors of the Great Hall and stared at the stairway she was sitting on. 

"What are you looking at?" 

Rebeka whirled around and saw Chad coming out of the room; he had a confused look on his face.

"Nothing." Rebeka said quickly, "Nothing at all."

"Why are you out here?" He walked over to her, "Shouldn't you be inside soaking up all the fun?"

Rebeka narrowed her eyes at him, "Somebody's in a bad mood."

"I am not." Chad snapped, "I'm just not much for all this excitement. A few moments is enough for me."

"You're boring." Rebeka began to make her way to the doors, "I should go back inside."

Yeah…" Chad muttered, "You know I have noticed…"

"Noticed what?" She whirled around and saw him looking down at his feet.

"Nevermind, you go now. Have fun." He began to walk away from her.

"What happened to Aphrodite?" She asked, he stopped, "Where is she now?"

"I don't know, dancing with Pete Carny or someone. She's popular, she has to dance with everyone." Chad shrugged, "I don't -"

"See the point, I know." Rebeka rolled her eyes, but noticed a giant smile form on Chad's handsome face, "What is with you?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." He walked back over to her, "Do you want to know something?"

"Depends on what it is." Rebeka joked, making him laugh.

"I did not want to come to the dance." Chad sighed, "I would rather just stay in my room and read or something. Aphrodite was driving me up the wall! All she knew how to talk about was what a wonderful dancer she was or how popular she had become."

"She sounds interesting." Rebeka said, trying to hide her laughter.

"I should have stayed in my room, it's so much easy that way. Dances are stupid." Chad leaned against the wall like he was Joe Cool or something. Rebeka walked over to him and did the same.

"You're just mad that Beth and Tom ended up coming together aren't you?" Rebeka sighed in frustration, "When are you going to get over her?"

Chad looked at her with a blank stare, "Shut up."

"Snippy aren't we?" She replied, "Its amazing how I'm still your friend. Most people wouldn't have put up with you for this long."

"Then leave. No one is stopping you." He said in anger, and at first Rebeka believed that he was angry, but the big smile on his face told her otherwise, "You know you're my greatest bud."

"Yeah, a greatest bud who didn't even know your dads name." Rebeka muttered under her breath, "A greatest bud that you keep secrets from."

"Are you trying to start a fight?" Chad asked her, she just groaned and began to walk back to the doors.

"You can be so impossible sometimes." She said.

"You don't understand." Chad shrugged. 

"I wouldn't if you told me." Rebeka looked at him.

"Look, I just like that you don't know my dad is some famous guy in the wizarding world. I hate the stares, I hate everyone trying to be my friend, I hate the fact my father thinks I'm a little clon of him... I hate it all," He explained, "I would rather you not know anything about it."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" She yelled, her voice echoing off the walls, "I'm going to find out eventually, I already know he's famous. I'm going to be friends with you no matter what, why would you doubt that?"

"Because I have reason too." He told her calmly, "Like I said, you wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand!?" She asked. He looked at her for a second. It looked like he was going to tell her something important, the look in his eyes told her so.

"Rebeka…It was, I mean…I-" Chad mumbled like he was unable to speak. Then all of the sudden he shook his head and walked away from her, "What am I doing?"

"Excuse me?" She blinked as he took off up the stairs.

"I can't…I have to go." He quickly ran up the stairs and out of sight before Rebeka could even try to stop him. She just stood there with her mouth hanging open, not really knowing what to think. What exactly just happened?

"Rebeka? Are you out here?" Vinesah voice snapped her out of her shock and she whirled around to look at her.

"Vinesah, something just happened…" Rebeka said with a confused look on her face.

"What? Did you get another threat?" She asked and walked over to the shocked Rebeka.

"No, no…with Chad." Rebeka began to pace, "We were out here talking, then we were fighting... it looked like he was going to tell me something...then he was gone…"

"What, you're confusing me." Vinesah exclaimed, so Rebeka broke down the whole story for her. Vinesah then gasped, "did you two have a falling out? Did you Break up!?" She joked.

Rebeka blushed, "NO!! Stop being foolish!"

"Yeah huh!" Vinesah argued, "You two always act like boyfriend and girlfriend, I knew you two were dating...that's always how it works in romance novels..."

"Those are romance novels!" Rebeka laughed, "You can't base real life off of those things."

"Chad and Rebeka sitting in a tree…" Vinesah smiled widely, "I always knew you two had some sort of attraction toward one another."

"We do not!" Rebeka snapped, "I'm not talking about me and Chad supposidly dating! We don't even like each other like that."

"Yeah…well, that's only a minor glitch in the story," Vinesah sighed, "Or you just haven't realized it yet..."

"You and your crazy idea's…" Rebeka rolled her eyes, making Vinesah laugh. Suddenly though she got very serious and asked Rebeka what had happened. When she told her all the details, she put her hand on her shin and began ot think.

"Hey Bek, have you looked in that book I gave you yet?" She said suddenly.

"No, why?" 

"Make sure you do, there is a story called The Duel that you might find very interesting." Vinesah nodded her head, "Have you got anymore threatening notes?"

"No, none since that first one." Rebeka sighed, "Do you think it was just a harmless prank."

"I wish it were, but something it telling me this is way over our heads." Vinesah looked back toward the door, "I think we should be going back inside now."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Rebeka began fixing her hair and straightening her dress robes.

"Well, unless you want to go back to the Tower and make out with Chad of course." Vinesah joked, "I'll tell them you suddenly took ill."

"Vinesah!" Rebeka gasped as they walked inside while Vinesah just laughed hysterically. The rest of the night went pretty well, although all Rebeka could think about was what happened in the hallway. She just didn't understand what Chad was up too, or what he wasn't up too. Whatever it was, she was confused, that kind of thing had never happened to them before. She continued to dance with Griffin, hoping to take her mind of everything and pretty soon it was time to head back to the towers. Everyone said their good-byes and took off toward their houses tower and Griffin helped Rebeka get back because she was so exhausted. Griffin and her said their goodbye in the common room with a hug and he walked off to his side of the tower. Rebeka walked over to the girl's side when she noticed Chad looking over at her from the other side, she was about to say hello when he just turned around and walked up the stairs. Sometimes he was just so rude. 

She walked up the stairs and too her room, where Beth, Yolanda, and Merriam were already getting ready to go to bed. All of them were talking about what a great night it was and Rebeka quickly joined in, pretty soon it was way past their bed time and all of them were sound asleep. Except for Rebeka of course, who decided to read the story that Vinesah wanted her too before she went to bed.

Her necklace was still glowing a little bit and she decided that it provided enough light for her to read off of. She grabbed the book and quickly flipped through the pages until her got to the page that read, "The Duel", she began reading eagerly:

  


Two families of wizards, so powerful they were

The most powerful in all the land,

Most people would concur. 

Many talents grew from each, each person left and right

That a rivalry struck between the two

And so began the fight.

The families could not stand the other still around

So they planed and schemed and thought about

How to bring the other down.

Some people sided with one, some with number two

No one knew the hate that grew

Or what they were capable to do.

So one night the leader of family one had a bitter plan

He said that they would have a duel

And the loser had to leave the land

Not thinking about what that meant, the other decided to play

And so it was decided that

They would fight that very day.

The bitter feud lasted until the morning light

When the leader of family two was struck down

And ended the brutal fight.

Family two was driven out of the land by family one

And were forced to live a Muggles

Wizarding they did abandon.

And it is said that even now, on this very night

That family one awaits for Family two's return

Just to restart the fight.

It is said that family two will return to take revenge

And the final duel will be that of death

And bring the only true end

And these families never knew how to live in harmony

But I tell you now this story's true

As real as you or me.

  


Rebeka shut the book quickly and looked into the blackness that was her room. Strangely enough Vinesah was right, Rebeka did feel a connection with the story. It would make sense with her family history if it were true, Her family went to America and lived as Muggles for no reason, maybe it was because they had lost the duel with this other family. Who was the other family though, and now that she was back would she have to fight the decedents to the death like in the story? Was that why she got the threatening letter? If this was true, she was way over her head. She couldn't just start up some 300-year-old duel that her family had forgotten about ages ago. Then it dawned on her, she wasn't starting it back up, and whoever sent her that letter was starting it. Whoever it was probably hadn't forgotten there families history like she had and thought of her as the enemy…someone who they had to kill. Rebeka swallowed hard, trying to push down the lump in her throat. She hoped to God that the connection she was feeling was just nothing and that Vinesah was wrong.

She took off her necklace and grabbed her wand so she could shut down the pretty colors that were still swirling from it. She tapped her wand to it, but nothing happened. She shrugged and did it again…again nothing happened. That was odd, wands weren't known for not working. Rebeka pointed it away from her.

"Lumos" She muttered quietly, but again nothing happened. She began to panic as she repeated the word Lumos about a hundred times…then it dawned on her. HER WAND STOPPED WORKING! Whoever was her enemy right now, was really ahead of her…

______________________________________________________________

  


A/N: From the poem you can see the Skyelars weren't innocent victims in all of this, but you get more information about that later. 

The Chad and Rebeka scene was completely rehashed. Originally they almost kissed. However, I didn't feel the characters were developed enough or old enough to warren any kind of romance between any of my lead characters. At this point it didn't seem like the best idea. However, I think I want to write a sequel to this so maybe then. ^_^ Depends how this one ends up though.


	8. The Strange Professor Albackle

A/N: Originally Chapter 8 was called "The Shadows in the Walls" and was one giant chapter that was around 20 pages. However, since I figured it was going to be on FF.net, I cut the chapter into two, edited them and renamed Chapter 8. Which gives me two Ravenclaw point of views in a row, but I figured Ravenclaw has been a little neglected anyway. Jerrad Tagety takes on the narration whenever the Ravenclaw Point of View is used. Notice, he is the only guy. It was supposed to be all girl's, but none of my girl friends who have counterparts in this story ended up in Ravenclaw. Therefore, the Jerrad character got the honor. That's okay though, I like him. He's smart, but no one knows it, and he's a klutz, everyone loved a klutz. 

Well, on with the story then.

______________________________________________________________________ 

  


Chapter 8: 

The Strange Professor Albackle

(RAVENCLAW)

  


Jerrad felt like he had been hitting the Quaffle away from the goals all day, of course that could be because he had been. It was Sunday, usually a break from everything, and Vidar was making them practice again, they were lucky they even got to go to the dance last night. It took a lot of convincing on Tom's part that they didn't need to practice all the time just because they had lost to the Slytherin. It was the only break they had gotten all week actually. Vidar was preparing them for Hufflepuff, even though that game wasn't for another two weeks. The Hufflepuff team wasn't exactly known for being the best team, he didn't understand why they had to practice, even Slytherin could barely get passed him. Not that he was being cocky, he was just really quick, he always had been. When he was younger he was always beating other kids at broom racing. So this practice was really boring to him as he caught ball after ball, which kind of upset Vidar who abruptly ended the practice.

"I see none of you are taking this seriously, so we're going to stop." Vidar snapped at them, "When you get serious about winning, we'll begin practicing again."

"I'm never serious about winning," Willow Jenkins, a chaser, shrugged when Vidar was gone, "Ravenclaw hasn't won a tournament in 15 years."

"Willow you are such a downer." Analee Manger, another chaser, said as she picked at her nails, "I know Slytherin is good, but they are not that good."

"It's not Slytherin we have to worry about," Jerrad told them all, "They only won because they caught the snitch…Gryffindor on the other hand will be very hard to beat."

"What about Hufflepuff, or have we just forgetten about them?" Nick Talliwind, their seeker, asked them all.

Willow laughed hysterically, "Everybody forgets about them…I don't know how they could even be considered a house."

"Well, because Hogwarts says it's a house, duh Willow." Imogene Halliwell, a beater and resident ditz, scoffed. Willow just glared at her.

"That's not what I meant Imogene." 

"Then what did you mean?" Imogene stared blankly at Willow, who groaned loudly.

"How can a beater as good as you be such a ditz!?" She exclaimed, Tom Alvary began to laugh.

"One to many hits with the Bludger will do that to you." He joked, "Well, I'm gonna go see Beth, I'll talk to do guys later."

"Conspiring with the enemy!" Analee yelled to him as a joke, he just waved to her, "Traitor!"

"I'm gonna go too, I'm hungry." Jerrad put his hand on his stomach.

"You're always hungry." Nick joked with him, "I'll go with you though, I'm hungry too."

Both boys ran off the field and toward the great hall where they hoped there would still be some food. If ont they could always go into the kitchen, the house elves were always happy to give them more and more food. Nick and Jerrad barely noticing anything as they skidded down the corridor though and -SMACK!- they ran right into a girl with dark brown hair.

"Hey!" She yelled as she and Jerrad went soaring to the ground. He scrambled to get up and the girl looked up to him.

"I am so sorry, I didn't even see you." He proclaimed, She began to get up and dust herself off.

"No harm, no foul I guess." She sighed and smiled at the two, "I hope my book wasn't ruined."

Jerrad quickly walked over and picked it up, "Wizard lore? Are you interested in this stuff?"

"Yeah I guess you could say that." The girl smiled a bright smile..

"I don't believe we've met," Nick extended his hand, "I'm Nick Talliwind."

"Jerrad." Jerrad said.

"I'm Rebeka," she looked at their dirty Quidditch uniforms, "You guys play Quidditch for Ravenclaw huh? Cool, I'm on the Gryffindor team you know."

"Yeah, you're that new chaser girl!" Nick exclaimed, proud to recognize her.

"Gryffindor eh?" Jerrad eyed her, "We better be careful, consorting with the enemy and everything."

"Yeah be careful." Rebeka laughed, "I may put a curse on you."

"So, why do you have you're nose stuck in a book anyway?" Nick asked her, trying to change the subject. Jerrad rolled his eyes.

"Research." Rebeka smiled.

"You're doing research in a Wizard lore book?" Nick laughed, "You do know those stories probably aren't true."

Rebeka gave him a slight glare, "You guys wouldn't happen to know if there are any flashlights around here, would you? 

"Flashlights…?" Nick murmured confused, "What are flashlights?"

Jerrad let out a sigh, "Something that Muggle's use to light up dark rooms or whatever."

"Oh…Why would we have any Muggle stuff here?" Nick asked and his face contorted into a look of disgust. 

"Why don't you just use your wand?" Jerrad asked her, "Too much of a muggle eh?"

"No!…well, kind of… but that's not the point, that's a long story." Rebeka snatched the book out of Jerrad's hand, "See, my wand stopped working, so I have to do things the Muggle way until I figure out what's wrong with it."

"Your wand stopped working?" Nick asked confused. Jerrad new that Nick was getting into detective mode. Nick was big on solving mysteries and thing since his dad was a cop for the Ministry of Magic. Of course, they didn't call themselves cops, but Jerrad was used to Muggle terminology. Even though his family was big on magic and thing of that sort, they lived amoung Muggles since his mom was half. They tried to live a normal life despit the magic, his dad held a regular job and his mom even worked as a seamstress. She loved her job and she even owned a business called "Magic Seams." Jerrad had always thought the name was too obvious, but his mom said Muggle's were unknowingly oblivious to most things around them. His dad always took that too offense, until Muggle's never questioned how she sewed a whole dress in one day. 

"Yeah, it did, hence why I need a flashlight." Rebeka gave Jerrad a 'What is Nick on?' kind of look.

"Well, did you break it?" Nick asked her again, he started to sound like he was interrogating her. 

"No, it just kind of stopped working…Poof! Just like that." Rebeka shrugged and held out her lifeless wand and mimicked an explosion with her hands, "Weird, huh?"

"Sounds like a spell to me. Probably a temporary curse as a joke or something. They aren't against the rules, the Temporary ones anyway. Probably wanted to make you venerable for a little while…" Nick began to run his chin with his hand, while Rebeka looked at him in wonder, "What? My dad does this for a living."

Rebeka sighed, "Oh, I see. I was afraid someone cast a spell on it, I was hoping it was just a fluke."

"Do you have any enemies? Any one who would want to harm you?" Nick walked around her slowly, questioning her like one of those old detectives from the movies. 

"Harm me…" She gulped, "I don't know for sure…"

"Are you trying to scare her Nick?" Jerrad looked over to him with a glare, "I'm sure it's just a joke, we'll just get one of the teachers to lift it."

"Lift it?" Rebeka sighed in relief, "Is that all? I thought it was broken forever!"

"Don't be so sure it's not an enemy of some sort, that's how people get killed you know." Nick muttered, Rebeka's eyes got wide.

"Nah, it's just a joke, a very bad joke." Jerrad gave Rebeka a half hearted smile, "I'm sure you don't have any enemies."

"You would think that wouldn't you?" She smiled. It sounded like a joke, but Jerrad got the distinct impression that it might not be. 

"Do you want us to help you?" Nick asked, "We could get Professor Albackle to do it for us, he is the new head of Ravenclaw."

"Don't you guys have classes? I mean I'm sure that Albackle would lift it if -" Nick put his hand up to cut Rebeka off, she stopped abruptly.

"Professor Albackle has a thing against Gryffindor…actually he has a thing against all the houses except for Ravenclaw." He told her, "It would just be easier if we were on your side."

"Besides, we don't have class for another hour." Jerrad shrugged, "And he is the potions teacher, he'll be able to whip up something pretty quickly."

"Shouldn't we ask Professor Snape?" Rebeka blinked at them, "I mean he is the Defense teacher…what am I saying?"

"I don't know, I was getting ready to ask you if you were mental!" Jerrad joked, making all three of them laugh.

"Albackle is our best bet." Nick told them, "I think he's still in his office. We should go before he disapears on us."

"Yeah, Let's go!!" Jerrad exclaimed excitedly, kind of happy to be apart of something like this. 

"Are you sure you won't trip over anyone?" Rebeka joked and looked over to him.

"That's not a guarantee, Jerrad is a bit clumsy, you get used to it after the fifth or sixth crash." Nick gave Rebeka a wink and Jerrad began walking away, leering at him - only to crash into the big stone wall in front of him. He let out a groan and rubbed his now bruised nose, noticing Rebeka was trying really hard not to laugh. 

"Ha,ha. I'm just one big joke!" He rolled his eyes and made a strange face, making Rebeka and Nick burst out laughing. Jerrad in turn began laughing too, he always liked making people laugh. It was his thing.

"You are an interesting person." Rebeka smiled at him, "Did you say your name is Jerrad?"

"Yup, that's me!"

"I DO know you! Do you know Hollie Skyelar?" She asked as they all walked toward the stairs that led to Albackle's office. 

"Yup, she's friends with my bud Jack…why?" Jerrad looked around him like he was trying to avoid running into anything. He wasn't going to bruise his nose, or his ego for that matter, again. He ran his hand along the wall, hoping that neither of the two would notice that he was trying to protect himself.

"Okay, she's talked about you…"

"You know Hollie Skyelar?" Jerrad eyed her, "And What did she say about me?"

"That you were a little weird." Rebeka gave him a sly smile and he started to laugh.

"That figures." Jerrad shrugged, "I guess she said that because I am a little weird. When did you talk to her?"

"I talk to her all the time. She's my little sister." She answered, "I guess I should have told you I'm Rebeka Skyelar."

"You're Hollie's sister!I should have realized with your American accent and all." Jerrad exclaimed, "Wow, you too are so…different."

"Umm…should I take that as an insult?" Rebeka glared at him, making Nick smack him in the back. Jerrad realized what he said and blushed furiously. He always had a problem with putting his foot in his mouth. He didn't mean it as it sounded, it's just they looked so different. Hollie had golden blonde hair and green eyes and a much more innocent look about her, Rebeka had dark, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes and looked almost stern. Also, Hollie would never be caught dead with her nose in a book... unless it was a comic book.

"We have to turn left up here." Nick said, trying to change the subject. 

"How much longer until we get there? Rebeka asked, kind of whining. 

"Shouldn't be too long, just around this next corner," Nick proclaimed, "Unless the room moved of course."

Jerrad saw Rebeka sigh in confusion, "I'm afraid I'll never get used to this place."

"Aw, Muggle born are you?" Nick questioned her, "That's okay, Jerrad over here is half."

"Sort of Muggle born, in the technical sense though." Rebeka corrected, making them both looked over to her with confused expressions, "Long Story." 

They turned the corner and sure enough there was a big wooden door with the words '_Woodrow Albackle_' emblazoned on it in fancy letters. 

"Looks like it didn't move." Jerrad joked, making Rebeka chuckle. 

"Okay, well let's see if he's home, shall we?" Nick walked over and knocked on the door, "Professor Albackle?"

They stood there awkwardly for a minute or so, but there was no answer on the otherside of the door.

"Do you think he's there?" Rebeka walked over a little timidly.

"Well, let's see." Nick grabbed the doorknob and opened it slowly. Jerrad had to wonder why the door wasn't locked, although it probably meant that he was in the office. So why wasn't he answering the door? Jerrad shrugged and walked over to where the other two were and peered in right along with them. Standing there with his back toward them. He was busy putting in ingredients into a medium sized cauldron. The brew was bubbling wildly and was a nasty greenish color. 

"What is he doing?" Rebeka whispered to Nick.

"I don't know…" Nick whispered. The three of them leaned in a little more, noticing the concoction was now turning a blackish color. 

"What is that?" Jerrad asked, leaning above the other two. Unfortunately, Jerrad's clumsiness decided to kick in and he leaned in a little too far. He fell into the room with a loud smash, making Professor Albackle turn around quickly. He looked at Jerrad from behind his small glasses with a mixture of anger and shock. 

"What are you doing?" He asked them all as Jerrad scrambled to get up. He could not believe he had done that, what a fine time for him to fall! 

"We're very sorry sir, but we needed your help and we weren't sure you were here, so we looked and…" Nick began talking really fast out of nervousness and looked toward Jerrad, "Then he fell…sir."

Albackle gave him a sharp glance then quickly covered up his bubbling pot of blackish goo. Jerrad looked over to Rebeka, who was busy staring at the cauldron.

"What is it?" Albackle looked over to Jerrad now, taking care not to look at the brown haired girl. Jerrad couldn't help but notice through his calm faÇade, Albackle eyes showed anger and nervousness. Whatever was in the pot he probably wasn't supposed to be making. 

"Well, sir, my wand has suddenly stopped working." Rebeka said quickly, showing him her wand, "And,um, this guy said it was some kind of trickery spell so we -"

"It's a disenchanting spell." Albackle snapped, making Rebeka jump, "Notice how the wand is lying there like a loose twig? A simple trickery spell couldn't do that."

"A WHAT?" Nick sputtered out, "A disenchanting spell is grounds for a fine! Who in Hogwarts would know how to do that? When my father finds out about this he'll…"

"No one in Hogwarts should know how to do that spell." Albackle grabbed Rebeka's wand out of her hand and looked at it, "And I really don't think it's necessary for your father to get involved young Mr. Talliwind. Hmmm…interesting."

"Yeah, thanks for asking…" Jerrad heard Rebeka murmur. He couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle. 

"You're from Gryffindor aren't you Miss Skyelar?" He asked her, she nodded, "I would suggest taking a different tone with me then."

_Man this guys almost as bad as Professor Snape_, Jerrad thought to himself and rolled his eyes. 

"Yes, sir." She muttered, but she didn't sound like she was too happy with Albackle's sudden backlash, but she looked down at her feet - probably trying to disguise her anger. Jerrad stared at Professor Albackle with quizzical eyes, noticing that he was growing a sideways smile upon his rugged face. That was odd, it was like he was impressed with the person who did this. Something told Jerrad this guy wasn't all that he seemed.

"We'll have this fixed up for you in a second." He muttered, "_Disrami Enchantra_."

The wand began to glow a bright red color, then it quickly faded back to it's normal color.

"Wow, Cool. Never seen a wand glow red before." Nick murmured in awe.

"It's a Skyelar trait, the power from their wand makes a reddish color," Albackle handed the wand back to Rebeka, "Dead giveaway to who they are if you ask me."

"W-what?" Rebeka stammered out.

"I'm shocked the Ministry of Magic even found you, thought the lot of you were gone by now."

Rebeka looked as though Peeves had pulled down Albackle's pants, "You know about the Skyelars?"

"Not too much, but yes." Albackle sighed, "I was there when Radcliffe was trying to get you in, he even got the aide of that Dumbledore. Kept going on and on about how you were really a British witch who needed to go to a British school. So I did some research, didn't find very much though."

"What do they know about the Skyelars?" Nick pipped up even though Jerrad knew that he had no idea what they were talking about. It was Nick going into Detective mode again, everything to him was a mystery to solve. 

"Nothing, Nobody knows very much. Only that they ran off 200 years ago and disapeared." Albackle glared at him, "Palonius Chance swore it was because of a rival family, but it sounds like rubbish to me. They probably just couldn't handle the power."

"Hey! That's not true!" Rebeka yelled quickly, Albackle turned to look at her once again.

"Do you know that for certain my dear?" He asked her with a hiss.

"I…" she looked down at her feet, it was clear she had no idea.

"I think we should go now." Jerrad mumbled, making Albackle smile.

"Yes, that is the best thing I've heard you say." He agreed and the door flung open, the three slowly began to make their leave.

"So the disenchantment spell is Disrami Enchantra?" Jerrad asked him, "Sounds pretty easy."

"It is easy to an elder wizard such as myself." Albackle rolled his eyes, "But to a child like you it is very hard. Try it and nothing would happen."

"Ohh…by the way, what's in the cauldron?" He asked him again, knowing that this question would catch him off guard. 

"Nothing more than a Serendipity Spell…they relax me. Now leave." He whisked them out the door and shut it behind them. Nick turned to Jerrad.

"Why did you ask what was in the cauldron?" he yelled, "You could have gotten us killed!"

"Because he knew we noticed it, it would seem suspicious if someone didn't ask." Jerrad began beaming with pride, "I proved he was lying though."

"How?" Rebeka asked.

"Easy… Serendipity Spell's are purple…"

  


*******

  


There was one major detail Jerrad always kept hidden about himself, he was genius when came to magic. Math he couldn't do, English was too hard, but Magic was something he got very quickly. In fact he was already at a sixth year level when he entered Hogwarts, and he knew more about brewing potions than most graduates. He knew it all pretty well, but he kept it hidden from all of his other classmates. Radcliffe knew though, he even asked Jerrad if he would be willing to skip a level, he said no of course. Jerrad wanted to be at Hogwarts just as long as the other kids his age to learn all he could, there had to be something he didn't know yet. He had also asked Radcliffe not to say anything to the other teachers for fear it may leak out, he agreed reluctantly, just as long as Jerrad didn't do too good of a job on his homework no one would know. Now this little skill of his was coming in very handy as he watched Professor Albackle teach his potions class that day. Albackle still had no idea that Jerrad knew most potions and there colors. It was hard to tell what potion he was doing though, there were a lot of black colored potions out there, from the harmless night spell to the very harmful Squeezer spell (Which squeezed a person tightly like their whole body had eaten a lemon if it was drunk). He would figure it out eventually though, it was just a matter of time. 

"Jerrad, something up?" Jack murmured to him, making him jump a bit, "I've never seen you pay this much attention in class before."

"No, nothing." Jerrad grumbled out and looked behind him. Sitting there with a glazed over expression was Hollie Skyelar, a friend of his and sister to the girl he had met just the other day. He was watching Hollie very closely now, after her sister's wand had stopped working he figured that Hollie was probably next. She yawned and looked over to Jerrad with a drowsy smile. He quickly gave her a small wave and turned around. 

"Now that I have discussed the fundamentals of a basic potion, I think your homework should be an essay on what I discussed today." Albackle told them all, making them all groan. 

"Man, this sucks." Hollie said that a little too loudly and Albackle whipped around to look at her. 

"Two points from Slytherin for Miss Skyelar's sudden outburst." 

"Oh give me a break!" Hollie yelled again. The whole class grew silent and watched as Hollie bravely stared down the skinny teacher.

"Okay, two more points!" He yelled, she slammed her book on the table hard and stood up. Everyone flinched.

"What is your deal anyway?" She asked him, "Do you get a kick out of torturing ten year olds?"

"Miss Skyelar you are going in the right direction for detention."

"Oh am I?" she glared at him with her sky blue eyes, "It's not my fault you got some dead end job as a teacher PROFESSOR, so don't take it out on me."

Jerrad wanted to reach over to her and push she into her seat, making her stop. She knew about the way he treated her sister, what was she doing?

"That is it Miss Skyelar! Meet Jingry on Friday at midnight, you have detention!" He told her with a smug look, probably expecting her to start crying or something. He looked disappointed when she just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." And with that she sat back down and began grumbling to Marigold, who looked a lot paler than usual. 

"Brave girl Hollie is." Jack mumbled to Jerrad, "Everyone knows Albackle 

has a thing agianst other houses. Now he has a thing agianst Hollie."

"You have no idea…" Jerrad mumbled back, remembering yet again how he had treated her sister. Class was soon dismissed and people walked out of the class quickly, buzzing about Hollie's sudden outburst. It would probably be all over school by the end of the day. Hollie didn't even flinch as she gathered her books and Albackle stared her down, she just stuck her tongue out at him when he wasn't looking. Jerrad laughed and put his stuff away, she really was fearless. 

"You have such a big temper for such a small girl." A dank grumbling voice said to Hollie. Jerrad quickly looked up, standing in front of Hollie was Lee, "I'm amazed you've lasted this long."

"The only way I'm going anywhere is if I happen to hurt you," She smiled at him, "Then it would be sooo worth it."

"Such big words, do you think you can back them up?" He asked her, "I don't think you're as strong as you think you are."

"Leave me alone Prior." She hissed and walked around him. He reached over quickly and grabbed her arm. This wasn't good.

"I'll leave you alone when I'm good and ready," He said in a hushed voice, "I don't know what your deal is but messing with Albackle is a very stupid idea, Espescially for you. You don't want to get hurt now do you?"

Jerrad looked over at them both with a shocked expression, was he threatening her? Did Lee and Albackle have some sort of alliance against the Skyelars or something? 

"What is that? A threat?" She tore her arm away from him, "I don't take threats too well…"

"You're not strong enough to do anything."

"I'm not scared of you, Prior."

"You will be if you get Albackle angry, Skyelar." He hissed, "I'm not going to let you do it."

That did it, Jerrad had to stop this before it got out of hand. He grabbed his book and took off toward the two, trying to swerve in and out of the chairs and remaining students. Again though, clumsiness got the best of him and he tripped over one of the chairs, falling to the ground with a loud crash. Both Lee and Hollie stopped to look at him with puzzled expressions.

"Jerrad, you okay?" Hollie asked him as he quickly began to get up.

"Too big for your own good, eh Tagety?" Lee said through his laughter. Jerrad got up and walked over to the shorter boy, leering at him from above. Lee looked up and the cocky smile that he had quickly faded from his skinny face.

"Big enough to hurt you pretty good, Prior." Jerrad snarled, which made Professor Albackle turn toward them.

"Is there a problem over there?" He asked, but none of the students responded, "Hmm, seems we're having a bit of a disagreement yes? Why don't we solve that right now… Lee, since you feel the need to start problems, why don't you join Miss Skyelar in detention and see if you can solve one for once?"

Lee didn't say another word, he just gave Hollie one last glare and took off down the hallway. Hollie smiled to Jerrad, then to Marigold - who was standing in the background frozen with fear.

"I thought he was going to kill you!" Marigold yelled from the corner, still afraid to move, "I really do not like that guy, he creeps me out."

"Yeah, well, I was taking care of it." Hollie told her, but still gave Jerrad a look of thanks. Hollie was trying to be brave, but she was pretty scared herself. Lee seems to get worse and worse, it wouldn't be long before his threats turned into something more. 

"What's his deal anyway? You two have a fight or something?" Jerrad asked her as the three walked out of the classroom and in the opposite direction as Lee had. 

"No," She shrugged, "He just has had a vendetta against me ever since we laid eyes on each other."

"I don't like him… don't trust him either." Jerrad mumbled to himself.

"Do you think he's going to kill her?" Marigold stuttered out.

"Marigold!" Hollie yelled, "He isn't going to kill me! Well, as long as Jerrad's around anyway."

Marigold groaned, "Well still, that guy has some nerve."

"Some nerve?" Hollie asked, "That guy is all nerve."

"Well, I'm walking you back to your tower, I didn't like that look in his eye." They hurried down the hallway and hustled to the Slytherin Dungeons, talking about everything from homework to the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match on Saturday. When they finally got to the Slytherin hallway, Jerrad couldn't help but notice that it seemed extremely eerie. Marigold and Hollie must have noticed too, because they began to slow their pace almost instantly. A small chill ran down his spine, he could feel it - something wasn't right.

"Is this hallway always this eerie?" Marigold murmured, confirming to Jerrad that he was just hallucinating. Holly, Marigold, and Jerrad slowly and quietly made their way to the large Gargoyle at the end. All of them were peering around each other, like they were expecting something to jump out at them. When they got to the big statue Gargoyle, they were all very pleased to see that nothing jumped out at them. 

"Um, Guardian?" Hollie said to the stone statue, "Have you noticed this hallway feels a little off?"

"Aye," Said the Gargoyle in a strange Irish accent, "Strange creature's be walking the walls at night. Good thing Slytherin children are in bed when they decide to wake."

"When what decides to wake?" Marigold asked, rather scared of the answer.

"Don' know. Don' care me self, as long as they don' hurt no one." The Gargoyle then sighed, "Stay out of the 'allway at night children, they won't hurt ye then."

"That doesn't sound very good." Jerrad sighed, making the Gargoyle look at him and sniff the air around him.

"I smell Ravenclaw on ye, wouldn' be tryin' to sneak into these quarters, eh child?" It leered at the tall boy, making him back off a little.

"I guess that's my cue to leave…" Jerrad sighed, and hesitantly took off down the hallway.

"I'm alright," Smiled Hollie, "See, nothing to worry about."

But Jerrad wasn't convinced at all.

  


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A/N: Nothing here to say, just thanks for reading! Read the next Chapter, that's where things get fun ^_^


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